You can fight city hall

Little man - 1 Wal-Mart - 0
MIKE ARGENTO

Jan 23, 2006 — Dave Weigel didn't go looking for a fight.

He's a peace-loving man, a retired mechanic, 78 years old now, and he's not one to go around trying to pick fights.

Especially one with a giant corporation that hires lawyers by the battalion and makes more money in five minutes than Weigel earned in his lifetime of toil.

But a fight he got.

And he's the one left standing.

At least for now.

Weigel took on Wal-Mart.

He doesn't think he really did much at all.

"I didn't play much of a role in it," he said the other day. "I'm just a peon."

All he did was put up a sign on the side of his barn - "Stop Wal-Mart," painted on a 20-by-20 blue tarp.

He doesn't think it was much.

He simply wanted to stop Wal-Mart from invading his corner of the world. He's lived on a 4-acre spread, just off Cape Horn Road, for the past 44 years. He used to be able to see rabbits and deer from his front porch. The sky was bigger then - the bright lights of the strip malls and shopping centers did not encroach on his view of the heavens. Now, he's surrounded by strip malls and used car lots, and his view of the world seems a lot smaller.

Having Wal-Mart in the Windsor Township neighborhood would reduce his world to the size of a postage stamp.

When the plans for the Supercenter were unveiled some time back, Weigel was concerned. The loading dock for the massive store - 197,000 square feet - would be just a few feet from his front porch. He was looking at exchanging a view of a field for a view of trucks unloading cheap TVs from China - 24 hours a day. He was looking at his property being lit up like Camden Yards, every night. He was looking as his somewhat fresh air being replaced with diesel fumes.

He also didn't like the feeling that his township officials seemed to give lawyers for Wal-Mart more sway than the people they were elected to represent. That just didn't seem right to him.

He didn't like any of it.

So he put up his sign.

Not everybody liked it. The township threatened him with fines of $500 a day. Someone stole his sign in 2004, replacing it with a pro-Wal-Mart sign that was emblazoned with swastikas, a confusing message that seemed to indicate that Nazis support Wal-Mart.

He caught a lot of grief from people over the sign. Eyesore, some called it.

But he also got a lot of people interested in the cause of stopping Wal-Mart. A lot of people who felt the same way he did rallied around Weigel and his sign. And they rallied to the cause to stop Wal-Mart from invading Windsor Township.

On Jan. 11, York County Common Pleas Court Judge John Kennedy ruled in favor of Citizens for Responsible Development, saying that the Windsor Township Zoning Board "abused its discretion" in approving Wal-Mart's plans. Specifically, the judge ruled that the township erred in granting Wal-Mart an exemption from the law that would allow it to locate its loading dock facing Weigel's and other residents' homes.

It was a matter of law, and the township was on the wrong side of it.

Weigel was on the right side.

"The judge did a lot more than me," Weigel said. "All I did is let people know what I think about it."

Going into it, Weigel didn't know a lot about Wal-Mart, other than it was a pretty good place to get stuff cheap. His fight wasn't political. He just wanted to be left alone.

But over the couple of years he's been involved in the fight, he's learned more about Wal-Mart, and the things he's learned weren't good. "I read things about how they treat their employees, how they hurt the little guy, and it isn't right," he said. "It was just a lot of things."

Still, he said he doesn't have anything against Wal-Mart. He just doesn't think his front yard is the right place for one.

And for now, he's glad he's won this round.

Still, the township and Wal-Mart have until Feb. 10 - 30 days from the date of Kennedy's ruling - to appeal.

Weigel's holding his breath.

"I'll feel a lot better after the 30 days is up," he said. "I got my fingers crossed."

The sign is down, for now, having been blown off the side of his barn by a strong, winter gust. He's thinking about putting it back up.

Maybe this one will say, "Hey, Wal-Mart, neener, neener, neener. Sometimes the little guy wins one."

Mike Argento, whose column appears Mondays and Thursdays in Living and Sundays in Viewpoints, can be reached at 771-2046 or at mike@ydr.com.