City Council delays action on Wal-Mart

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BY DEENA WINTER / Lincoln Journal Star

Twice, the audience had to be reprimanded during Monday’s City Council meeting: No bright, neon signs (lambasting Wal-Mart) allowed. And no applauding (anti-Wal-Mart comments) allowed. And with that, the debate ensued again over whether a third Wal-Mart should be allowed as part of the Prairie Village North development northeast of Lincoln. 48th and O deal approved

The Supercenter would be near 84th and Adams streets.

Despite the impassioned testimony about Wal-Mart, the council focused on any potential cost to the city the development would incur, and the improvements the developer is paying for.

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(AP file)

(AP file)

In the end, the council voted Monday to delay action on the development for two weeks.

A series of Wal-Mart opponents testified against allowing another Wal-Mart into Lincoln, going through a litany of beefs about the world’s largest company and its well-publicized business practices: the number of its employees on government assistance and health care programs and the effect the company has on independent businesses and wages.

The council held a Nov. 7 public hearing on the proposed development, but the developer, Prairie Homes, and city planning officials weren’t able to hammer out an annexation agreement in time for the meeting. So the public hearing was extended to Monday’s meeting. Although only new testimony related to the annexation agreement was supposed to be allowed, the parade of Wal-Mart opponents went on.

Jennifer Miller told the council it would be turning its backs on local businesses and eventually shuttering them if it allowed another Wal-Mart. By her count, there are four grocery stores within four miles of the proposed Wal-Mart, which she said will create excessive traffic, crime, litter and light and noise pollution.

A man who works for Nash Finsch in Omaha but lives in Lincoln said he has seen the impact Wal-Mart has had on floral shops, optical stores, paint stores, garden centers, grocery stores, shoe stores and clothing stores in small towns. He said the owners and employees of those stores contributed to their towns for years, until Wal-Mart came to town (sometimes with incentives from the city).

He told the council members not to take action that could hurt bustling retail centers in places like Havelock, University Place and the Haymarket District.

“Lincoln is not an underserved market,” he said.

But a local Wal-Mart employee said she hires people who can’t find jobs elsewhere, and they are offered 17 different health care options that cost from a low of $10.50 to $140 biweekly, with Wal-Mart paying 75 percent of the premium. But the company can’t force employees to buy health insurance, she said.

She said part-timers are eligible for health insurance after two years, which is unusual, and “great benefits” such as a “fantastic 401K profit-sharing plan,” stock purchase plans and scholarship programs. She said she’s an hourly employee who makes “very good money” and that according to her research, Wal-Mart pays more than other retailers in town, starting people at $6.50 to $8.20 or sometimes as high as $12 per hour depending on their experience.

But Tammy Spence, who owns a specialty store in Havelock and lives in northeast Lincoln, said Wal-Marts kill mom-and-pop stores like hers, which she said are the backbone of Lincoln and the country.

Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.

In other business

The Lincoln City Council voted Monday to:

* Approve a redevelopment agreement that will result in a Walgreens, West Gate Bank, Braeda Fresh Express Café and Runza southeast of the corner of 48th and O streets.

* Approved a new cable franchise agreement with Time Warner Cable.

* Put back on the agenda an ordinance authorizing the sale of the city-owned K Street power plant building at 440 S. Eighth St. The council had previously tabled the ordinance due to lingering concerns.