ONLY DAYS AFTER ITS DEFEAT, WAL-MART BACK ON THE TABLE IN MOON, PN

Moon rethinks Wal-Mart proposal [Beaver County Times (Pa.)]

The Moon Township Supervisors plan to hold a special meeting Thursday to reconsider Wal-Mart’s preliminary plans to develop a store on the current West Hills Shopping Center site.

The controversial plans were shot down, 3 votes to 2, during a marathon meeting last week that attracted close to 100 residents, many of whom voiced opposition to the plans fearing the development would choke traffic in the heart of the township and hurt smaller, locally owned businesses.

But supervisors Chairman Tim McLaughlin, who voted in favor of the plans, said Monday that board solicitor Michael F. Santicola called for the special meeting. McLaughlin referred all other questions to Santicola. Messages left at Santicola’s office and home were not returned.

Frank Sinatra, the other supervisor to vote in favor of the Wal-Mart plans, said he wasn’t sure why the meeting was being held, but suspected it was because “one of the supervisors who voted no is reconsidering their vote.”

Pittsburgh lawyer Alan Sable, who is representing Wal-Mart in the matter, declined to comment.

Supervisor Marvin Eicher, who opposed the plans along with Michael Hopper and Jim Vitale, said he was notified about the meeting Monday morning.

“I was totally taken by surprise. I don’t even know what to expect,” Eicher said.

Hopper and Vitale did not immediately return calls for comment.

Posted by Joel Nezianya on Tuesday, July 08, 2008

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