If you were a Wal-Mart executive, would you turn down the free money continually flowing from local and federal authorities?
PRINCESS ANNE - Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s newest planned distribution center could receive up to $1.3 million in federal aid following approval of a Community Development Block Grant application by Somerset County Commissioners this month.Why exactly are the Feds giving out money to fill holes in the ground?The bulk of the grant - $810,000 - would help fund Wal-Mart's purchase of land for the proposed center on Revells Neck Road in Westover. Currently, the land is owned by Mitchell Bonneville Jr., who operates a borrow pit on the site.
Excavation typically leaves a shallow to moderately deep hole in the ground. If left in that condition, these pits can be a site of severe erosion and sediment runoff to adjacent streams and wetlands. They also can become breeding sites for mosquitoes. Borrow pits have notoriously been used as garbage pits in some neighborhoods. In other words, borrow pits can be an unattractive nuisance and an overall eyesore.While WM might be getting $1.3 million, the Feds gave out $1.3 billion in similar State-based block grants in 2004.
(H/T Drudge)
Posted by Kevin on January, 18 2005 at 04:51 PM
