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<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nThe developer and owner, Piedmont Companies of Lincolnton, North Carolina, submitted plans for the land, previously owned by Coolfont Resort and Country Inn owner Larry Omps, to the Morgan County Planning Commission on March 6, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The planning commission will hold a public hearing on the proposal after the developer meets all of the planning commission requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Morgan County Commissioner planner Alex Moore wrote to the engineering company affiliated with the project on March 9, 2023<\/a> asking for 25 items of additional information \u201cincluding Department of Highway entrance permit approval.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n After Moore receives the requisite information, the Planning Commission will hold a public hearing to discuss the proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The site plans show that there is no turn lane from U.S. 522 into the proposed site\u2019s parking lot \u2013 which has 43 planned parking spots. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dollar Tree bought Family Dollar in 2014. There are more than 19,000 Dollar General stores in the United States, more than 8,000 Family Dollar stores, more than 8,000 Dollar Tree stores and more than 800 Family Dollar Dollar Tree combo stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are writing a bold new chapter for our business \u2013 and for towns all across America,\u201d Family Dollar says on its website. \u201cWe\u2019ve brought Family Dollar and Dollar Tree together under one roof, starting in small, rural towns across the country that had limited retail options. Our customers love the concept and we are expanding past just small towns. We ended fiscal 2022 with approximately 810 Combo stores opened and plan to add hundreds more in the coming years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n \u201cWe have a lease, we have a bank commitment, we have everything lined up,\u201d Piedmont\u2019s Larry Bearden told Morgan County USA. \u201cWe want to get everything approved properly and done properly. We\u2019d like to have the store open by fall. But it all depends. It takes us about 120 days from the start of construction until we are open. A lot of that can depend on the weather.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is there a reason you put the store just a couple hundred yards away from the Dollar General on Oakland Road?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTheir customer is our customer,\u201d Bearden said. \u201cYou may have a McDonald\u2019s across from another fast food outlet like a Burger King right across the street. It\u2019s just a different type of product mix. And people shop both.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Have you gotten approval from the Department of Highways?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have been talking with them,\u201d Bearden said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is there going to be a turn lane on 522?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m not certain of that, I can\u2019t answer that,\u201d Bearden said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2015, many residents of the south Morgan County community opposed the Dollar General store that eventually went in at the corner of Oakland Road and US 522. <\/a>The dispute became acrimonious, with then County Commissioner Bob Ford calling for the ouster of Jerry Berman from the Economic Development Authority Board for writing a song against the Dollar General and singing it with a group of fellow singers before a Morgan County Planning Commission meeting at the county courthouse in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The song played on a news report by WHAG \u2014 NBC 25 Hagerstown, Maryland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMr. Berman, as well as any other members of the EDA that may have participated in protesting the company at the last Planning Commission meeting, should resign,\u201d Ford said at a Morgan County Commission meeting at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSince that meeting, I have had several citizens in the county ask me who is this Berman fellow that wrote and lead the singing of some song protesting Dollar General,\u201d Ford said. \u201cI said — you mean Jerry Berman — he is on the EDA. The next thing they ask me is \u2014 what the hell are you running down there?\u201d A Family Dollar Dollar Tree combo store is being planned for just south of the entrance of Cacapon State Park ten miles south of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia \u2013 and almost directly across the road from the Dollar General on … Continue reading <\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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