The announcement from Walmart Tuesday afternoon came as a shock to everyone, but not everyone is upset about it.
“Gut wrenching,” said Mayor Dennis Pauley. “It was just totally devastating. We’ve done everything we possibly could, we’ve bent over backwards trying to accommodate everything and in the end it just didn’t work out.”
The conversations about a Walmart being built on 11th Street in Rock Island started in 2012. After an extremely long process, Walmart announced Tuesday that the negotiations and planning would not continue.
“I’m highly disappointed,” said 25-year Rock Island resident Taina Machalek. “I feel that the city put a lot of effort into this.”
The city spent $15 million clearing the site and prepping it for the corporation. They also gave Walmart several extensions to hold up their end of the deal.
Many residents don’t believe the Walmart was a good idea in the first place.
“I kind of have some real mixed feelings,” said resident Gabrielle Machalek. “I was excited about the Walmart coming in. I started thinking about it being in the parking lot of those schools, there’s a lot commotion there. It could really open us up to something real major.”
The residents were also concerned about the change. Many have been living there for 20-plus years. There was a fear about a giant corporation coming into an area with low-income residents and small businesses.
“We’re not like the mansions on the Hill,” said Machalek, “It would be nice to see a business come in that isn’t trying to take advantage of the little money we have around here.”
Mayor Dennis Pauley says the next step moving forward is recruiting another business to fill the lot that the city has already prepped.
