A protest song against a proposed Dollar General store in southern Morgan County, West Virginia was released today in Berkeley Springs.
The song — Dollar Store Don’t Come Here — was written by local resident Jerry Berman and sung by a group of citizens calling themselves the Dollar General Protest Band.
The protest song was sung to the tune of John Denver’s Country Roads.
“Dollar store, don’t come here,” the Dollar General Protest Band sings. “To this place we revere. South Morgan, West Virginia. Dollar store, Don’t come here.”
“We wrote the song because we don’t need another dollar store, we don’t want it, and it will detract from the beauty of our rural environment,” Berman said. “When we think of country roads, we don’t think of one dollar store after another.”
Angela Petry, a member of the Dollar General Protest Band, lives less than a mile from the proposed Dollar General store.
“We already have three dollar stores in Morgan County — a Dollar General and a Family Dollar in Berkeley Springs and a Dollar General in Paw Paw,” Petry said. “We don’t need another one. Enough already.”
A community uprising against the Dollar General store has been brewing for months.
Recent community meetings have drawn standing room only crowds opposed to the Dollar General.
The Morgan County Planning Commission will consider Dollar General’s application at a public meeting on Tuesday, February 17, 2015 at 7 pm at the Morgan County Courthouse in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.
Dollar General’s application was put on hold last month after the Planning Commission determined that the corporation had not given proper notice to the public.
Petry encouraged all citizens opposed to the Dollar General store to attend and participate in the February 17 Planning Commission meeting.
At previous meetings, citizens have raised concerns about safety, traffic, clean water issues, whether the store is needed — there already exist three dollar stores in the small county — and the transformation of the neighborhood from rural residential to out of state corporate commercial.