Counting on a Big-Box Bailout

Crabtree called around, but only Wal-Mart was willing to take a chance on Grundy, in Buchanan County. When executives came to visit, he serenaded them with a recording of "Dreams Across the River," a tune written by a local musician about the town's hopes for the future. An old-style Main Street is pictured on the CD case.

That sort of vision isn't an economic reality, said Crabtree, who contends that detractors have yet to accept the harsh truth about their beloved town. "If Wal-Mart isn't interested in your community, no one is," he said flatly.

Wal-Mart officials said they're excited about locating in Grundy. "Wal-Mart is in small communities from coast to coast," said spokeswoman Kelly Hobbs. "We've never been afraid to invest in small communities that need revitalization."

Ticking off reasons the store will be good for Grundy, Crabtree said county residents spend more than $50 million a year shopping elsewhere, often at Wal-Marts in neighboring counties. The store will bring jobs that pay higher wages than other area retailers. The town and county will collect hundreds of thousands a year in much-needed tax revenue. Most important, people will have a reason to come to Grundy again.

"Sometimes I can't understand why people don't see what I see," said Crabtree, who also hopes to lure tourists by illuminating the town's new mountainside with seasonal lighting -- yellow and amber in the fall, red and green for the Yuletide.

But residents who see Grundy's future as a big gaping hole strain to share the vision. The project has already taken a toll, they say.

With the downtown teen center gone, bored adolescents have nowhere to go, said one frustrated Grundy mother. Entertainment for teenagers on a recent Friday night consisted of a "tire fire" -- standing around a bonfire of old tires.

"We were just old country folks. We had a neat little town here," said Lee Keen, 75, a lifelong resident who doesn't buy the argument that Grundy's old downtown was doomed by design. Keen isn't wild about Wal-Mart's likely impact on local businesses, none of which has committed to relocating in the new downtown's other retail spaces.

"They sold us on the idea that all the merchants had to do was pick up their socks and underwear and put 'em on the shelves," he said. "It's a holy crime."

Grundy residents know the old downtown had to be flood-proofed, but some think the town's economy was coming back just fine on its own. Since the redevelopment project began more than six years ago, coal prices have jumped, creating jobs. The Appalachian School of Law, devastated by a shooting rampage in 2002, has bounced back. And a pharmacy college opened in the county last year.

"We've lost our town," Raines said. "We're still here, but it's like we've moved. That sense of place is very important in life, and when you lose your sense of place, you lose your people."

Cecil Ward, 65, a retired coal miner sitting on a bench at Food City, the town's only grocery store, was willing to see the bright side. With Wal-Mart, he figured, at least groceries will be cheaper.

"It'll be a different town altogether," Ward said.

He looked over at his 8-year-old grandson, Jacob, squirming around on the seat beside him. "I hope there'll be something here for him," Ward said.