Wal-Mart issue calls for a value decision

Editor,

Well over two/thirds of citizens (called opponents) who made statements at the public hearing were against Wal-Mart's Supercenter proposal and for keeping Polson as a small town with its unique quality of life and its city-county established plans and current businesses.

This is in contrast to some citizens who testified for cheaper groceries. As a result, the City/County Planning Board turned down the requested zone change from residential to commercial designation so Wal-Mart could build there. Now this zone change will be decided at a forthcoming meeting of the city council in June and many Polson and Lake County citizens are very worried about the consequences of this irreversible zone change that would destroy the integrity of our city/county planning and our quality of life as well as a lot of businesses.

Basically, it comes down to a value decision. What is really good or bad, right or wrong, for Polson and its citizens on a long range basis? And what do they really want as revealed in public surveys for quality of life in a small town —why are we here?. All growth is not good, e.g, a cancer cell. If the city council reads the letters from Worden Thane P.C. Attorneys at Law, Missoula, April 24, 2006 and LH Land Consulting, Whitefish, April 24 and May 2, 2006, (now public record), the applications by Wal-Mart and City-County Planning (which lacks a professionally trained planner) are seriously flawed and/or lacking in a number of critical areas, e.g., legal, water supply and pollution, traffic, landscape setting (despite cosmetic/mitigation farces), increased public services, lack of information, hazardous materials from storm water runoff, etc.

Any reading nationally of the negative impacts and consequences by Wal-Mart Supercenters on small towns would make anyone, including most city council members, very concerned about having one in their town if their eyes and ears are open, especially to public input by informed citizens who simply do not want it. And these informed citizens vote.

Daniel H. Henning

Polson