Saturday, Jun. 21, 2008

Merced leaders tour newest Wal-Mart center

Leslie Albrecht

lalbrecht@mercedsun-star.com

A tour of a Wal-Mart distribution center in Southern California gave city officials an up close and personal look this week at one of the biggest decisions they'll face this year.

Three City Council members and Assistant City Manager Bill Cahill traveled Thursday to Apple Valley, about 90 miles northeast of Los Angeles, to get a first-hand look at how a Wal-Mart distribution center looks, sounds and operates.

Wal-Mart plans to build a nearly identical facility in southeast Merced. The City Council will vote on the project later this year, after an environmental impact report is completed.

Wal-Mart invited the officials and hosted the tour. The company offered to pay for the trip, but the city declined because accepting such an offer would be inappropriate, said Cahill. The one-day trip cost $1,400.

Cahill and council members Michele Gabriault-Acosta, Noah Lor and Bill Spriggs spent 4½ hours at the facility, which sits about eight miles from the center of Apple Valley.

The group also met with council members and Chamber of Commerce representatives from Apple Valley and nearby Victorville.

Merced council members who attended called the trip valuable, but said they'll want more facts on Wal-Mart's possible impacts in Merced before they vote on the project.

Spriggs said the most important piece of information he learned was about the level of truck traffic around the 1.1 million-square-foot Apple Valley facility -- it was far less than he expected, he said.

"I think the perception that the public has is that there's going to be this continual bumper-to-bumper flow of trucks in and out and we saw nothing like that," said Spriggs. "They're not backed up, lined up."

On the two-mile drive between the main highway and the distribution center, Spriggs said the group passed one truck on the way in and one truck on the way out.

Spriggs said he was also heartened to see a work force that seemed happy and motivated. He was also impressed that an entry-level salary at the Apple Valley distribution center is $14.31 an hour and that the facility employs 1,000 people, mostly full time.

The Merced site would employ about 900 full-time workers when fully operational.

Councilman Noah Lor called the tour informative, but questioned how similar Wal-Mart's proposed site in Merced is to Apple Valley.

The Apple Valley site is surrounded by empty desert where rattlesnakes seem to outnumber people, said Lor. The Merced site is about a quarter-mile from residential development.

"The environment didn't really compare," said Lor. "It was oranges and apples. (Apple Valley) is out in the desert. The only things that live with them is the rattlesnakes. Here you have other things that come into the equation."

Wal-Mart spokesman Aaron Rios said Wal-Mart invited Merced officials to tour Apple Valley because it's nearly identical to the facility the company wants to build here. It's also the newest of the 10 distribution centers the company has in the state.

Nick Robinson, an organizer with the Stop Wal-Mart Action Team, said he gives "cautious applause" to the City Council for making the effort to see a distribution center firsthand.

But he said the council should also visit Wal-Mart's distribution center in Porterville, because it's closer to residential areas than the Apple Valley site.

He said the trip should have been publicized in advance, so Merced residents could tell council members what kind of questions they'd like answered during the tour.

He also questioned the use of taxpayer money for "a propaganda tour."

Spriggs said he didn't feel the tour was slanted.

"I went down to see the external things and it's kind of hard to slant those things," said Spriggs. "They are what they are."

Reporter Leslie Albrecht can

be reached at (209) 385-2484 or lalbrecht@mercedsun-star.com.