[Vision2020] Home Depot & Moscow & Unfounded Bennett Rumors

[Saundra Lund]

For the folks who continue to claim that Moscow is business unfriendly, you
might find the following interesting & enlightening, especially the *source*
of the unfounded rumor that Home Depot had dropped its interest in Moscow.

The question I have is what motivation Shelley Bennett, co-secretary of the
Greater Moscow Alliance, would have for starting a rumor that perpetuates a
blatantly false stereotype about Moscow's attitude towards business???  Not
that I'm a member of GMA (I'm not, nor am I a member of MCA), but this is a
HUGE red flag, IMHO, about what the community can expect from GMA.  The
rumor sounds like a whole bag of Sore Loser Syndrome from those Super
Sprawl-Mart advocates who didn't what they wanted!  Certainly, I think GMA
has taken a *huge* credibility hit -- as it *should* -- with the Bennett's
failed ploy.

"LOCAL BRIEFS 
Staff report 
Published: 08-29-2006 

Home Depot still planning move into Moscow market 

Home Depot still hopes to open a store in the Moscow area, despite rumors to
the contrary. 

Kathryn Gallagher, spokeswoman for Home Depot, said Monday that the
company's plans to move into the Moscow market have not changed. 

Home Depot is working with the University of Idaho to obtain the land for a
store in Moscow, according to Gerard Billington, real estate official for
the UI. 

Billington also had heard that Home Depot was reconsidering. 

"I heard rumors about the rumors," he said on Friday. "I became curious and
decided to find out." 

The rumor blossomed on Wednesday, when Moscow developer Shelley Bennett said
at a Moscow Chamber of Commerce luncheon that the home improvement store had
decided not to come because Wal-Mart backed off its pursuit of a super
center in Moscow. 

The UI owns the land behind the Palouse Mall where the proposed store would
be located. The university is working on a proposal to present to the State
Board of Education and officials at Home Depot. 

"We are still fully engaged," Billington said. "I think the rumors started
because the deal hasn't been cleared yet. We have no deadline."


Saundra Lund
Moscow, ID

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
nothing.
- Edmund Burke

***** Any original material contained herein is Copyright 2006, Saundra
Lund.  Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside the Vision 2020
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