Woonsocket’s MED Zone a disgraceful betrayal of small business that maintained city for 50 years

Thursday, March 17, 2005

It happened to me about 40 years ago, a single moment that still reaches to my very core, still plays an important role in who I am, and what a community newspaper means to me.

And when I read the debate over the siren song of Woonsocket's MED Zone, and the millions of dollars it will bring at the expense of so many fine people, it saddens me deeply. Why can't our leaders see past the money?

I was a young boy, maybe 11 or 12, and an avid newspaper reader. The Journal, The Woonsocket Call, everything. I was one of 10 children, always kept warm, always fed and clothed, and always loved. We all had enough, though I know my dad, Dr. Bernard V. "Vinnie" Ward, and my mom, Simone, had to work very hard to keep us all afloat. It couldn't have been easy.

I vividly recall the day my father took me to a new Cumberland Hill men's shop, run by his friend and patient, Bill Free. As he chatted with Mr. Free, I browsed the store looking for the right size of traditional light blue shirt I would wear every day to St. Joseph's School. I noted, too, that the price was a little bit more than the price I had seen in the newspaper ads for Nyanza Mills or Ann & Hope. Knowing money was always tight, I quietly pointed out to him that we might be able to save a little money if we shopped elsewhere. He gave me a smile, took the shirt to the counter, and paid for it.

As we sat in the car, my dad explained that he knew he had paid a few dollars more for the shirt, but that Mr. Free was a patient - a customer - of his, and that the price didn't matter. He was there to help his friend become more successful in his business.

I started this newspaper with wonderful friends nine years ago and my father's words echoing in my heart. They will never be forgotten. This newspaper's mission is my father's mission. It is my work, and the work of everyone at this paper, to bring about the success of other people working hard on their own dreams. In doing so, we hope to help create more opportunity for our neighbors and wealth for the community.

Today, our neighbors in North Smithfield and Woonsocket are sounding the alarm over the MED Zone, a piece of land where the city hopes to site the likes of a Home Depot or Best Buy, landing as much as $3 million annually in sales tax to city coffers. Across the border, North Smithfield hopes for its piece of the pie, the property taxes that will be levied on all of the new buildings, money needed to help fund a new middle school and more.

Politicians will make the case that this is for Woonsocket's "greater good." It's hard to argue with the logic that if Woonsocket gets a free middle school, and uses state aid to leverage its $30 million windfall into a $100 million gusher, it will be a community better off. But will it?

Small business, the "little guys" who have maintained Woonsocket during its rough past 50 years, will have to charge customers 7 percent sales tax, while Home Depot gets to charge only 3.5 percent, a huge advantage.

When the small businesses die, ignored by frantic, traffic dazed shoppers out to save $1 on a 2-by-4, will we have a better community? I'm not so sure.

Keep in mind, I have a stake in this. In today's Breeze story, North Smithfield Town Administrator Bob Lowe states "Small businesses come in with a conflict of interest. They're worried about themselves." As a community newspaper that places advertising for Leeway True Value, Macamaux's decorating, Village Paint, Danny's D&S television and appliances, and dozens more like them, The Valley Breeze would certainly be hurt by a Home Depot, which would place all its ads with the corporate owned daily newspapers. In Woonsocket, the obvious victims of Home Depot are Pepin Lumber, Beauchemin Lumber, Vose True Value, Service Sales, and so many more businesses that have been around for more than 50 years.

Then there's Al Grenon. Al, the owner of Pineault Hardware, just spent plenty of his personal time and treasure in the last few months helping create a new Boys & Girls Club in the old Kendrick Avenue School. In Saturday's Call, Al was given plenty of credit for the new club by Director Dan Grabowski. Said Al, "Between all of us, we donated over $100,000 worth of labor and materials. There's a lot of good people in the city that people just aren't aware of."

Yes, there are. But, like a shallow old man who casts his wife and kids aside over a sexy new piece of arm candy, Woonsocket officials are tripping over themselves to attract Home Depot, with nary a thought for the men and women who stayed on in Woonsocket running family businesses through the lean years. Use 'em up, spit 'em out.

It is my contention that the MED Zone is a disgraceful sham, a misuse of the state's funds and a calculated bastardization by Woonsocket's leaders of what the state intended. It is clear that the legislation was meant to rehabilitate run-down areas of West Warwick, Central Falls and Woonsocket, and not for the destruction of virgin land for the creation of yet another community-crushing big box store. What, is Bellingham too far to drive? North Attleboro, Smithfield? Why are state legislators, both inside and outside the city, quiet on this disgrace? Is there a backbone anywhere in sight? Apparently not. One hundred million dollars buys a lot of silence.

I urge the North Smithfield Town Council to listen carefully to the concerns of neighbors. There is the possibility that other office and commercial space can be created there that would generate better paying jobs without the orange aprons. That possibility should at least be explored.

As for Woonsocket, I expect the city will continue its headlong rush to approve all it can before the state catches on. I have little hope that common sense will prevail, though. This is one very dumb state.

For all of my life, I have admired the people of Woonsocket. They are kind and generous to a fault. But the times, they are a changin'.

If you are one who cares for your neighbors, who shops their stores, who appreciates their support for Little League and so many other hometown endeavors, it's time to speak up. The City Council meets on Monday night, and they are likely to keep pushing the MED Zone forward.

If you don't care, and think that the nice people who kept Woonsocket afloat for the past 50 years are expendable - if you don't give a damn, then stay silent. You'll be able to take the tax dollars you save and put a Best Buy TV in every room. What a wonderful life you'll have!

I understand the temptation of millions of tax dollars, but don't understand the disgraceful betrayal of the small business community that comes with the MED Zone.

My dad's lesson - to support my customers and neighbors and their businesses - will stay with me forever. He was right in 1965, and his lesson lives on through this newspaper in 2005. No matter what city and town officials decide on the MED Zone in the months ahead, my dad will always be right and this paper, beginning its 10th year next week, will keep moving forward.

I hope you'll join me in voicing your support for the Pepins, the Beauchemins, the Al Grenons, the Ethiers, the Macamauxs, the Chomkas, and so many, many others who have been there for us in the past.

There are more important things than Home Depot. Money isn't one of them.

- Tom Ward is publisher
of The Valley Breeze