Town provides letter of support for a Dollar General

One of the topics of discussion at the Feb. 12 meeting of the Basin Town Council was a letter of support for Capital Growth Buchalter to bring a Dollar General to Basin.

Mayor CJ Duncan paraphrased the request: “The Dollar General, they want to build a building and put up a store in a hay field that Will Houchin owns (South Fourth Street). Dollar General has approached the state to add an additional approach. Their original application was denied.” 

This is why Houchin is asking for a letter of support from the town to attach to another request for a permit to add the approach. Houchin explained. “ (Dollar General) is trying to get their own access but the state has been reluctant to give them another access because the one sitting at 902 South Fourth (Wyo-Gains) and the one sitting at Doug Zierolf’s are too close together. So, they are just being relucent to allow another entrance to allow a business to come in.” 

Duncan told Houchin he doesn’t understand that logic because if the location was residential, they would have an entrance every 50-100 feet. Houchin said there is no sidewalk on the west side of the street in that block either. The sidewalks end at Holdridge. He was hoping that one of the representatives from Dollar General would be at this meeting. Duncan mentioned the representative was available by phone if needed. 

Public Works Director Tony Harrison explained that the proposed entrance for the store would be on the northeast corner of the lot right next to the Zierolf lot. Dollar General wants their trucks to be able to come onto the lot from Fourth Street. They would unload their product, continue west to South Fifth Street, turn north to Holdredge to return to South Fourth. There was an alley at one point on that lot, but it was abandoned by the town decades ago. A new alley would have to be put in. 

Town Engineer Jesse Frisbee from Eagle Engineering told the council that the Dollar General in Worland does not have highway access. WYDOT has an approach spacing formula it uses on highways that includes functional classification, number of lanes, speed and safety. 

Councilperson Chuck Hopkin made a motion for a letter of support. It was seconded by Councilperson Brent Godfrey. The motion carried unanimously. Hopkin said the revenue that will come in from the store is a positive. Duncan added that the town will have additional funds coming in the form of utilities and sales tax from the store. 

TAX CONCERNS 

  Duncan started the meeting saying he would like to see the governor, legislators and the county commissioners talk about what services could be cut if the tax breaks continue. “I can tell you right now, if we continue to cut property taxes and give tax breaks there are public services that are going to have to be cut. I don’t want that decision to be my decision.” 

Duncan continued that he would like to see people in town talk to the council, people in the county to talk to the commissioners and all people talk to their legislators. “Everybody loves the thought of not paying taxes. I do too but what am I willing to lose? As individuals and families, we need to have that talk.” 

The mayor stated that in Basin, the cuts are going to directly affect streets/alleys, streetlights, fire department and police department. “Truthfully by way of making up the difference it is going to affect our cemetery. I’m not trying to sway anybody one way or the other, but I think as adults we have to have that conversation. What are we willing to give up if we want less and less taxes?” He wishes that at the county level and state level, public meetings would be held instead of just giving tax breaks with no plan in place. He doesn’t think the state legislators acted responsibly on this. 

Councilperson Brent Godfrey said, “The state legislators, in their mind, they were going through with what all the people voted for. In their minds they are thinking ‘They voted for it, they can live with it.’” He continued that the cuts were going to impact ambulance services, landfills, special districts, senior centers. 

Duncan stated that people need to open their eyes and make sure that what they are voting for is exactly what they want.