The local anti-Wal-Mart group Citizens for a Better Mill Creek/Thomas Lake is part of a larger effort aimed at stopping the retail giant’s spread in Snohomish County.
The Mill Creek group is officially listed as an “affiliate” on the Web site of the organization North Snohomish Community Matters, a non-profit grassroots citizens group. Other “affiliates” listed on the Web site include groups in Arlington and Marysville/Lake Stevens.
The Mill Creek group is protesting a proposed Wal-Mart on the south side of 132nd Street SE. near Archbishop Murphy High School and Penny Creek Elementary School. The land the proposed store sits on was annexed into Mill Creek on Dec. 1.
According to North Snohomish Community Matters’ Web site, the group wants to “roll back the welcome mat on Wal-Mart’s unfair labor policies, predatory practices against local businesses, poor environmental records, and the consumption of local resources that have devastated small communities across America.”
The group holds meetings in various communities, with a stated goal to educate “local business and community members.”
To date, the North County group has held protests on the corner of 172nd Street NE. and Smokey Point Boulevard in Arlington to draw attention to the overwhelming traffic congestion there. The group has also been active countywide, including in Mill Creek, collecting signatures to present to local elected officials outlining concerns about the company.
“Needless to say, we are here to stay, be heard and do whatever is possible through any legal means to dissuade Wal-Mart from settling in our backyards,” says a statement on the group’s Web site.
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