NOVEMBER 20, 2015, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A13
In the circle
B
The McNary High School annual wrestling camp drew
about three dozen young wrestlers the past few weeks. About a
third of the participants this year were girls.
A
A: Josie Wampler
and Kate Endler.
B: Cody
Vancoevering and
Moseley Willis.
C: A pair of the
youngest campers.
D: Solomon Barela
and Damian
Rodriguez.
E: Tia Vincent and
Caylie Bemrose.
C
E
D
VETERANS FOUGHT
FOR OUR WAY OF LIFE.
IT’S OUR DUTY
TO FIGHT FOR THEIRS.
DAV helps veterans of all
ages and their families
receive the benefi ts they
earned. Lend support or
get free help at DAV.org.
WINCO,
continued from Page A1
John Morgan, Keizer’s first
Community Development di-
rector who served in that ca-
pacity from 1990 to 1998, post-
ed on Nov. 12 that pushing city
leaders to lobby for a particular
store isn’t the correct approach.
Morgan’s post is a guest col-
umn on page A4 of this week’s
Keizertimes.
“If the people of Keizer
want to influence the decision
that’s great,” Morgan posted in
part. “But the interest must be
focused on the potential ten-
ants, not on city hall. Continue
to pour letters and phone calls
into WinCo and other desir-
able retailers. Find out who
owns the property and ask that
person if and how the commu-
nity can help.”
Marion County Assessor’s
property records show Haggen
Property North LLC bought
the 40,821 square foot building
at 5450 River Road North on
May 1 for $2,227,342.
Late last year, Haggen ac-
quired a number of stores be-
ing sold by Albertsons and
Safeway due to their merger.
Haggen quickly went from
18 to 164 stores, but has since
closed many of the new loca-
tions. Several Haggen proper-
ties were sold in auctions last
week, including four in Ore-
gon. However, the Keizer loca-
tion was not one of them.
Keizer City Councilor Mar-
lene Parsons, who has connec-
tions in the grocery industry,
noted Albertsons could not
buy back the Keizer location
because it’s within one mile
of Safeway, which would be a
violation of the Federal Trade
Commission rules.
On Nov. 11, Keizer resident
Pam Getty posted on Next-
door about WinCo.
“Today I had the pleasure
of meeting Steve Goddard, the
CEO of WinCo Foods,” Getty
wrote. “He told me that WinCo
very, very much wants to come
to Keizer (in the Albertsons
store). He said there are some
political issues and that Alb-
ertsons may not want to give
up the space. He told me they
have been working on getting
WinCo in Keizer for some
time. He also said it would be
a smaller store. It would be the
size of their beginning stores,
but would have WinCo’s great
prices, bulk section, fresh meat,
seafood, produce and all the
other items, just smaller.”
Getty did not return mes-
sages from the Keizertimes seek-
ing comment.
Messages left for Goddard at
WinCo headquarters were not
returned, but company spokes-
person Michael Read did talk.
“We don’t have anything
presently going in Keizer,”
Read said. “I’m not aware of
any statement the company has
made about coming. That’s not
to say it couldn’t be possible
down the road.”
Read said the company
looks at various factors before
deciding to open a store some-
where.
“I can’t say there is one par-
ticular thing we look at,” he
said. “There are a variety of
economic and demographic
things. The big thing is how
close our nearest location is. We
also look at the demographics
of a community, traffic patterns,
visibility, just dozens and doz-
ens of factors. We continue to
look at locations in states we
currently do business in.”
Read said most WinCo
stores are 85,000 square feet
and larger, though the compa-
ny has recently opened smaller
ones in the 55,000 to 60,000
square foot range. The com-
pany has converted previous
Costcos and HomeBase loca-
tions.
“We have certainly done
plenty of that,” Read said. “We
mostly build our own stores,
but if it’s sufficient size, we have
converted. We look at both op-
portunities.”
Mayor Cathy Clark brought
up the topic near the end of
Monday’s Keizer City Council
meeting.
“The Haggen issue is in the
courts, a clash of the titans,” she
said. “What’s going to happen
is in the courts. I encourage
people to use social media to
contact companies. Retail-
ers are smart and are looking
to see if people are interested.
They will start counting up
comments and realize Keizer
is a good place to be. I know
people are concerned. We’ll see
how this turns out.”