Gas City will be the site of a new WM distribution center, but it could have been in any one of 18 other locations, except that Indiana killed its "inventory tax":
Eckerle said that recommendation was among the motivators for Grant County to become the first Indiana county to get rid of the inventory tax, which had the potential to cost a distribution center a considerable amount of money....I don't think WM's antagonists would be welcome in this crowd:"Mr. Mullis wrote a letter saying that it was a really good idea, so we had folks go about doing that," Eckerle said. "He wrote that the inventory tax was a true impediment to Indiana being a good location for logistical centers because Indiana was one of the few states that had an inventory tax...."
Then Mullis again visited the site in question. It was at that point that Eckerle knew Gas City had the edge.
"He was impressed that the community had done everything that he said they should do," said Eckerle, naming the repeal of the inventory tax and putting a traffic light at the Ind. 22-County Road 500 East intersection as examples. "A lot of this business is basically about listening to customers and delivering what the customer wants, and he was seeing that we were doing all that...."
The meeting was interrupted repeatedly by applause from the crowd, including a standing ovation for Leach. Standing before the group, Leach held a glass of sparkling grape juice and said the events on Tuesday brought him as close to speechless as he gets."This is going to be the beginning of a new beginning for our whole county," said Leach, who spent Monday evening purchasing all but one of the Wal-Mart gift certificates for auction at the Indiana Wesleyan University Telesale. "If we've got 600 jobs out there, the great majority are going to be people living in Grant County today."
Among the comments from the almost 200 residents and well-wishers on hand were questions about when construction would begin, how officials planned to handle increased traffic near the site and what type of corporate neighbor Wal-Mart would be.
Officials hope the needed zoning and building approvals and the annexation of about 150 acres into Gas City will be complete in time for a September 2005 construction start, said Joe Certain, Gas City's city attorney. As he answered the question, the comment "Tomorrow works into my schedule" came from the crowd.
"This is an investment the likes of which we haven't seen for many, many years," Certain said.
Although she worried about the amount of traffic 600 Wal-Mart employees would create on Ind. 22 and 500 East, MaryEtta Ruley marveled at the size of the company's investment.
"We're talking almost 1 million square feet," said Ruley, who lives on 500 East. "The size of the investment, the jobs. This is not just the start. This is the big thing."
Before the meeting was adjourned, county resident Michael Duke thanked the assembled boards for their work on the project.
"We needed to win here for the county, and this is a very good one," he said. "It will bring good quality jobs into the community."
Posted by Kevin on January, 26 2005 at 10:25 AM
