Forks Business Articles

Two interesting articles appear in today’s Express-Times. The first focuses on the still idle and empty Laneco/Giant store. While we are glad that this issue is being brought back to the public eye, we are sorry that the reporter did not mention how many other empty storefronts there are, and have been in Forks Township. One only needs to look on either side of the Giant Grocery Store to see what we are referring to.

Our readers might recall that this has been a hot issue for the leadership of Residents Who Care, long before RWC was formed and while we were still affiliated with another organization. Way back before the Board of Supervisors spent millions of dollars on our new Municipal Taj Mahal, we advocated converting the old Laneco into our new municipal offices. Great frontage to the main artery of our town, ADA compliant, tons of parking and the fact that it was behind the community park made this a logical move. Unfortunately ego and not fiscal common sense ruled.

As for the second article, we find it fascinating that with most of the retail operations being opened for less than a month at Towne Center at Sullivan Trail a business boom can be declared. Please do not misunderstand, we sincerely hope that these business succeed, especially as we can ill afford any more empty storefronts in the township, but we feel that it is a little bit early to declare this center “successful”. After all, were not the same words about the Giant Center at one point in time?

We also think that this quote (“Abrunzo said the bar was drawn to the location and its proximity to Lafayette College”) about the forthcoming Big Woody’s was very telling. Remember when this was billed as a “family establishment” and geared towards benefiting little league kids and their families during the liquor license proceeding? Pretty obvious by this quote who the real target audience is.

These issues illustrate even further why we believe the new township manager MUST have verifiable strong business development and retention experience skills as otherwise we will end up with even more empty commerical and industrial buildings.