{"id":1932,"date":"2015-09-01T16:12:11","date_gmt":"2015-09-01T20:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=1932"},"modified":"2015-09-01T16:12:11","modified_gmt":"2015-09-01T20:12:11","slug":"bob-ford-on-tractor-supply-walmart-dollar-general-and-brad-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=1932","title":{"rendered":"Bob Ford on Tractor Supply Walmart and Dollar General"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Morgan County Commissioner Bob Ford believes that a Tractor Supply store will go in on property about four miles south of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ford appeared on the new interview show &#8212; <em>This Week in Morgan County with Russell Mokhiber.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IPd7PLu_QME\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Has Tractor Supply purchased the land?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI can\u2019t swear to that,\u201d Ford said. \u201cI\u2019ve heard they have. I don\u2019t know where they are at at the Planning Commission. I understand they have expressed an interest in going across from Greengate Road there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You think it\u2019s going to happen?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYes,\u201d Ford said. \u201cI believe it will.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UDYayswv4rc\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And Ford said that he\u2019s been in touch with the site selector from Walmart.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI expressed to him that I had some acreage that I thought he ought to take a look at,\u201d Ford said. \u201cI\u2019m a firm believer that Walmart will end up either here or in Hancock. I\u201dve looked at the economic impact that it will have on people locally. I don\u2019t feel the economic impact is going to be any different if the Walmart is here or in Hancock. We are ripe for the pickin. We\u2019ve got the numbers in residency requirements for that. We meet that challenge. It\u2019s only a matter of time when Walmart decides to come. If the choice is either here or across the river, I\u2019d rather it be here because I\u2019d rather us have that tax base than Washington County. I\u2019d rather we get the jobs instead of Washington County.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When Ford says &#8212; I have some acreage &#8212; what acreage is he talking about?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI\u2019d rather not discuss that,\u201d Ford said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is it your property?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cNo,\u201d Ford said. \u201cThere\u2019s a piece of property where Walmart could go. And their site selector looked at it and he thought the same way. But there is a process you go through. And it\u2019s a lengthy process. It takes over three years to site a Walmart.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How close is it?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe\u2019re not anywhere close,\u201d Ford said. \u201cI\u2019ll probably be re-elected before something happens.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And Ford is going to run again in 2018?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI won\u2019t say I won\u2019t,\u201d Ford said. \u201cThe door is open.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ford says Commissioner Brad Close keeps saying he\u2019s not going to run again in 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who will run to take his place?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI haven\u2019t heard one candidate step up,\u201d Ford said. \u201cI haven\u2019t heard anything.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When asked why he said that those who oppose the siting of the proposed Dollar General store in a residential neighborhood at the south end of Morgan County should \u201cgo back to where they came from,\u201d Ford said &#8212; \u201cI\u2019m kinda glad you asked that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAnd don\u2019t misunderstand me, I\u2019m no Donald Trump,\u201d Ford said. \u201cI like to think I might be out of that mold a little bit. I have a habit of saying what I think sometimes. In reality, do I think for a moment all of these people are going to pack up and move because of the Dollar General store? No.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYou have to understand where Bob Ford comes from. I\u2019m a little bit of a libertarian. I\u2019m against zoning. I\u2019m pro business. People fail to realize that bedroom communities don\u2019t work. I\u2019ve never read one economic development study that shows that a bedroom community can survive. You have to have a certain amount of commercial and industrial development. That\u2019s what pays the taxes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ford said that \u201cwherever Dollar General wants to go in my county, they are welcome to go &#8212; that\u2019s the way I view it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=1914\">More than 400 residents of Morgan County have signed a petition<\/a> calling on the Morgan County Planning Commission to encourage developers to consider shifting the proposed new Dollar General store from the corner of US 522 and Oakland Road to the Morgan County Business Park just one mile away.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What\u2019s shouldn\u2019t the proposed Dollar General go in the business park?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s not for me to make that call, it\u2019s for Dollar General to make that call,\u201d Ford said. \u201cIt&#8217;s their money they are spending. They have an Olympic process they have to go through to locate their store.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ford said &#8212; \u201cwe shouldn\u2019t even be talking about Dollar General.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cDollar General did nothing to encourage any of this,\u201d Ford said. \u201cAll Dollar General did was talk to a developer that had a piece of property he wanted to sell. What created the problem was he tried to take a subdivision that was platted for eight or twelve lots or whatever, and turn it into a mixed development where you have commercial and residential.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The county commission recently decided to purchase a run down building that sits next to the courthouse and tear it down. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What if, hypothetically, the owners wanted to put a strip club there? Could they do it?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ford said they couldn\u2019t because of an adult entertainment ordinance that was passed when he was Commissioner more than ten years ago now.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ford supported the ordinance. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Isn\u2019t that zoning?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You are telling a private owner that cannot build a strip club there?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIn a particular case, where something is that in your face, that deals with morality issues, issues that are different than the average issue, I felt comfortable supporting it,\u201d Ford said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ford approves of the state telling an owner of private property that they can\u2019t put a strip club up on their own property?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYes,\u201d Ford said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Morgan County Commissioner Bob Ford believes that a Tractor Supply store will go in on property about four miles south of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. Ford appeared on the new interview show &#8212; This Week in Morgan County with Russell &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=1932\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}