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Having to go to Kansas City a lot because of a brothers hospital recovery situation in the past few, I was wanting to know if Mr. Welker would have been still down in West Texas on my turn around trip down here. But that's past news. Spooky, will get with you soon on events like losing a wife for the next 3 months because she is helping putting together a Wal - Mart super center in no mans land in Kansas and then the talk of another Wal-Mart in west Texas where no one is going to believe ! ( No, don't want to " spill the beans " yet till there is more concrete info on this ). We may be getting to some part of west Texas SOONER than some other people. LOL !

is Wal Mart going to ruin next? Please don't tell me it's Alpine. You probably aren't willing to say at this point, but I thought I would ask anyway. Not trying to demean what appears to be a personal revenue stream for you, just hope Wal Mart isn't going to the town in which we are soon to be moving.

DB

The Contest is on: Which locale will Wally-Supercenter be in West Texas? (Holister's ears will be up on this one - after he's been an applicant for years as a Door-Greeter )
Alpine would be nice..since not as many pretty blue bags on the landscape as Midlands. Lajitas would be funny..tho not as herper-cool as Loma Alta. Ft Davis would be interesting - Buzz is also an applicant for Door Greeter (and would get free tossed herp bags (blue). Uvalde'd outa the question: too many JasonP's there Sanderson would be great..Cervantes could chase the blue bags !
Best to all
Bill
P.S. Ya have one week to vote..winner gets a paid for dinner at Sirloin Stockade,Del Rio..from Herpo! Contest ends midnight: Aug 14th.'04 @ midnight.

which was blocked 2 times in past but with news and KNOWING that townships that block, wally world can buy property ( if someone wants to sell ) and with counties open arms, they can go outside city limits. Now with that same scenario several years ago in Belton Mo. that had blocked Wal from going in , Wal put it just a few 100 feet outside of the city. Now didn't Belton feel stupid ? I mean with the city sales tax losing millions to date........I will tell that the town being considered, it won't be a super center ( I don't think or see how )with the support of the demographic area. But you all know that we have seen Wals go in an area town with population less than 8,000 people and do rely on some traffic of a major road and distance from another Wally World. I mean it's possible.

AAAAAH!! Nothing like beautifying West Texas with the eye sore of another Wal-Mart. Where ever this is going, you can be rest assured that is will be another scar upon the land. Great to hear the good news. PPPFFFFT!

Wayne H.

the scar that Wal Mart leaves is not on the land so much as it is on the rest of the local businesses and the soon to be boarded up buildings that always seem to pop up once they come in and around small town USA. Wal Mart puts mom & pop stores out of business and forces them and their employees into being indentured servants.

Sorry about the rant, I just would really hate to see this happen to yet another small town, especially in WesTex.

This may sound like the ramblings of some left wing nut, I assure you I'm neither, although some may disagree on the nut part.

DB

they ( Wal - Mart ) bring in anywheres from 100 to over 300 jobs to a location and community benefits as far as monies on roads, schools, economic updating, etc. Hey, I'm not pro Wal-Mart but I see both sides. Let's go a little farther.....the town up for consideration ( and that is all at this time ) will be getting about 40 to 80 more families reportedly soon with the expectant of 35 to 60 affordable homes built. So if this is true...the township will have this burdon coming in already. Even though every family coming in will have at least one person with a job. Is this one of the reasons Wal-Mart is considering this town ? ( another hint, it IS NOT Sanderson )and Del Rio looks to be happy with thier super center ).

that based on your clues and population levels and the fact that Del Rio already has one and Sanderson is dying a slow death since the railroad pulled out, that the only place that would make sense south of I 10 would be Alpine.
The new families w/ at least one job you mentioned can only be from the new BP station and it's increased staffing level. If Wal Mart is counting on the affordable housing program they can probably forget about that as it has been withdrawn from consideration at this time due to the fact that it turned out to NOT be affordable and out of town contractors were going to do the work.

Although I understand your other side of the coin argument I just don't really buy into it. I have no problem w/ Wal Mart in larger municipalities where there is real competition. It's just what they have done and apparently will continue to do to small town America. The proof of the correct side of the coin is all too apparent.

Mike, it seems strange we have not actually met in person at some point over the years. We will be out from 9/10 - 9/18. Do you have any plans to be out there during that stretch? Maybe we can get together for a meal.

DB

Hyper Viper back from Florida and when they moved back to KC and I had to listen to why people treated him that way and this way by what he thought some of you guys shoulda gave him a going away party ( or something ). Of course if he coulda ever figure out how shallow he was, and get on the male counter part of PROZAC sooner............LOL ! ( this is what I heard )

I'll leave the Wally World thing alone for awhile.

I'm leaving maybe this weekend for Big Bend region and see if we can miss some of that monsoon stuff. Then there is the somewhat cooler temps hanging around. I don't know...I had consider Sept. And hey, who knows but with the recent weather pattern holding, I'm almost wanting to say that the second to third week ( exept for lunar phase ) might be risky. BUT if there is a way, it will be one of my " budget trips " for sure !

So Mike,
How come you never posted photos or narrative of your previous trip of 2 or 3 weeks ago. If you don't want to say here then please email me. I know of several alterna and leps found in the last week out west. I'm positive there will be more this week with all the rain. Later,BA.

I do remember someone being w/ him on his way back to KC, just didn't remember it was you. Even so, it's surprising, seeing that other than this past May/June, I haven't missed being out there in 17 years, that we haven't run into each other out in the Bend.

It is remotely possible that Wal Mart may not affect Alpine quite as adversley as other small towns like Brad's Newton. Because Alpine's economy is tourist and ranch driven, most, but certainly not all of the small businesses won't be negatively affected like towns that don't have dollars coming into the local economy from elsewhere. I still hope the monster stays away from the region let alone Alpine. DB

I agree 100% with the death of small town America because of WM's. About the only business' left in my hometown are antique stores and goodwill type stores [used merchandise], stores that don't have to compete with walmarts. Wal marts are great for the consumer but pure poison for the Mom and Pop business'.
A reliable source says the mystery walmart is indeed headed for Alpine and will be located on the west side of town near the new "Nafta" bypess to be built around the NW side of Alpine. Dont know if that means property value will go up or down out there but will certainly be more noisy.

thats what we need, another huge business to suck up the water and place more concrete on the west texas soil. the idea is that walmart may bring more jobs to an area, however in retrospect, it actually kills the economy and puts people out in the unemployment. but i guess every small town in the United States, and Mexico needs a walmart. just think, a walmart supercenter sitting on US 90 in between Alpine and Marathon. Oh ya, dont forget the county ordinances about light pollution...if that has any say so...

r

I'm figuring Alpine. They've been fighting it forever. Heck they were fighting it when I was a college brat back in the early 90's. I remember when Wal Mart made their big run at building on the East end of town. I knew a few of the city jinglers back then and I remember one of them said that when the city refused zoning, Wal Mart threatened to put it just outside the city limits. When Wal Mart realized doing this would not allow them to hook into the city sewage; the thought of a town sized septic didn't look so good.
Since I've been there though, the town demographics have changed pretty much. The home-town cowpokes, ranch workers, ect. are slowly getting replaced with an influx of displaced starving artists from Cali., AZ, ect. I'm guessing that the home-town "stick togetherness" has faded somewhat.
The newer folks who undoubtedly now have some political influence don't care so much about mom and pop's as they didn't grow up knowing them and their families. With this new influx, came their higher priced homes and land to the chagrin of the Alpine natives .
Kinda sad to see if you ask me.
The wide open spaces out there were the main draw for me back then. Now when you drive North of Ft. Davis or South of Alpine, there are houses everywhere. With all those houses comes the need for amenities. Wal Mart is has a VERY large Ear when people are calling for amenities.

As for Uvalde, Bill. Our Super Wal Mart will be completed in Sept. or October along with the accompanying strip malls on either side. We’re also getting an Appleby's and a Chili's. Street gangs will be imported shortly thereafter

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Snakes of Hudspeth County, Texas