[Vision2020] Walmart Gets Nod for Starting Work

[Tom Hansen]

Let me see if I have this right.

1.  Walmart is going to build a supercenter in Pullman.

2.  The Hawkins Companies is going to build a super-large mall just west 
of the Idaho state line after buying water rights from the City of Moscow.

http://www.moscowcares.com/Washington_Water_Permit_020408.htm

http://www.moscowcares.com/Hawkins_water_Panel_030408.htm

3.  While the city, the state, and the nation are victims to the largest 
recession since 1929?

Sounds like a preamble to another tax-payer bailout three years hence.

Not to worry, Moscow.  Councilmen Steed and Krauss have our best interests 
at heart . . . or is that "at stake"?

Courtesy of today's (March 7, 2009) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

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Walmart gets nod for starting work
Contractors ready for grading permit on Bishop Boulevard
By Hillary Hamm, Daily News staff writer

Dirt could soon start moving at the site of a future Walmart Supercenter 
in Pullman.

Public Works Director Mark Workman has given a preliminary nod for 
Walmart's Spokane-based contractors to take out an early grading permit, 
which would allow dirt to be moved and utility work to begin at the Bishop 
Boulevard site before a building permit is issued by the city.

"What it would do is kind of give them a head start in the early phases of 
the project development ... so they can be doing that while they're still 
fine-tuning their plans," he said. "It is good and smart on their part. 
The construction window on the Palouse is fairly narrow, and you want to 
take advantage of as much of the season as you can."

People were on-site Friday staking out areas for geotechnical core 
drilling and grading purposes. 

Jennifer Spall, the Washington Walmart public affairs manager, said she's 
not sure when official work on the building will start.

"That's the million dollar question," she said. A formal ground-breaking 
is expected sometime this year, Spall said, with completion in 2011. 

Pullman Mayor Glenn Johnson said the start of the project is good for the 
city and its residents, too. Not only have building permits been down 
substantially in the last year, but the city needs the sales tax revenue, 
and area residents want the convenience and low prices.

"It comes as good news for the community and our budget considerations and 
the people that need the low prices Walmart can offer," he said. "From a 
city standpoint, it comes as very good news."

Pat Garrett, owner of Pullman Building Supply, said progress on the site 
has gotten started a little too late for him to move forward with the 
expansion and relocation of his North Grand Avenue store. He said his 
store - which was going to be built on dirt excavated from the Walmart 
property - could have opened in November if the store's construction 
hadn't been stalled four years due to a legal battle led by the Pullman 
Alliance for Responsible Development.

He's also not complaining. Garrett said the current economics led him to 
recently yank the reins on the project, despite Walmart moving ahead. Even 
if his store had opened last year, he may have regretted it now because of 
the slow construction and economy in town.

"It's important that construction is going on to support an investment of 
that size. And there's not that type of construction slated to start in 
2009 ... but hopefully there is in '10," he said. "My full intention is to 
jump right back on board, but starting it this coming spring with Walmart 
is not in the cards right now."

Workman said Walmart has not formally applied for building permits, though 
they're expected to soon after the grading permit is issued. Activity on 
the site is limited to geotechnical core drilling until then, which will 
alert builders to what's underground on the site, such as rock and ground 
water elevations. 

Workman said a grading permit typically is issued only when a grading 
plan - which outlines how the earth will be moved - is submitted, along 
with an erosion and sediment control plan and construction inspection 
program, which ensures that the site will be heavily monitored during the 
process.

"Oftentimes a project is approved as a complete package ... but it's not 
necessary to do that," he said. 

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Seeya at the Intolerista Wingding, Moscow.

http://www.MoscowCares.com/Wingding

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"For a lapsed Lutheran born-again Buddhist pan-Humanist Universalist 
Unitarian Wiccan Agnostic like myself there's really no reason ever to go 
to work."

- Roy Zimmerman


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