By LARON SHORT
Staff Writer
Minco residents are still waiting to see whether the owners of the recently fire-ravaged William’s Discount Food Store will rebuild in their town. If not, an estimated 33 percent of the town’s sales tax revenue could be lost.
In a special called meeting on June 23, the Minco Chamber of Commerce discussed options available to the town in terms of new business to replace the lost income.
“We are working on bringing a grocery store into Minco; there are contacts being made,” Deana Walje, chamber secretary, said. “I don’t want to say anything until it’s confirmed, but we are definitely exploring some options. [The loss] will affect us for awhile, but hopefully for not too long.”
In the meantime, Minco is planning to tread carefully until the issue is solved.
“We’re just going to have to tighten the budget and watch spending,” said Kelly Savage, City Clerk. “It’s too early to tell what impact this is going to have on the town; we haven’t seen a change in sales tax yet. It won’t be until August that we see a difference.”
According to reports by the Minco Millenium newspaper, which were attributed to the Oklahoma State Tax Commission, about $100,000 of Minco’s annual income came directly from the grocery store. The entire town itself brings in close to $300,000.
“I suppose residents will have to go to Tuttle, Reno or Chickasha for groceries until another store opens up here,” Savage said.
A mission group from the town’s First Baptist Church now offers a shuttle for residents to and from Beachler’s grocery store in El Reno every Thursday morning. If you live in Minco and need a ride to buy groceries, contact the church at 352-4367 by 3:00 p.m. Wednesday to reserve a spot.
Tammy Clement, the coordinator for the Minco Senior Citizens Center, said that while people haven’t been complaining much, the lack of a convenient place to buy food is rough, especially for elderly residents.
“The senior citizens now have to rely more on family and friends to do their grocery shopping,” said Clement.
According to Walje, at the lastest meeting, Chief of Police Phil Blevins was up for a salary raise, but declined because of the financial state of the town.
“People are just doing what needs to be done to get through this and really pulling together,” Walje said.
