'I do not believe we should grant this rezoning request. Obviously, The Store intended to sell groceries all along. Decisions such as this are not made on the spur of the moment. They're made far in advance, back at the corporate office. The commission and the council should have been told of these intentions at the beginning. I feel that we were deliberately misled, and I do not think that we should rezone the property at this late date.'
'That's all well and good,' the chairman said. 'But as you know, we've been given an ultimatum. If we don't rezone, The Store has threatened to leave town.'
Bill's heart speeded up.
'Let 'em,' Jacobs said.
The chairman looked at him. 'Are you serious?'
'They won't leave. They have too much invested here. Call their bluff.'
Yes, Bill thought. Show those bastards for what they are. He glanced over at Ben, caught the editor's eye. Ben was in his objective reporter's mode and looked noncommittal, but Bill felt unreasonably excited. For the first time, there was opposition to The Store by the powers that be, and he sensed an opportunity here. They might not be able to make The Store retreat, but maybe they could stop its progress.
Graham Graves raised his hand.
'The chair recognizes Commissioner Graves.'
'I support the rezoning proposal. Allowing The Store to expand is in Juniper's best interest. This new grocery department will bring in fifteen new jobs. Five of them full-time.'
Jacobs snorted. 'And it'll take away thirty. Come on, Graham. You know as well as I do that it'll put Jed's market out of business. Buy-and-Save can't survive that kind of competition.'
'Then he'll have to lower his prices. If his groceries are cheaper, people will shop at his store.'
'First of all, you should excuse yourself from this vote. You've had it in for Jed ever since he broke up with Yolanda.'
'That's a lie and you know it --'
'Gentlemen. Gentlemen!' The chairman banged his gavel. 'We are not here to discuss prices or marketing strategies or personal affairs. We are here to address the question of whether or not The Store should be allowed to sell groceries.'
Bud Harrison, the Planning Commission's quietest member, spoke up. 'Can we look at the schematics for the addition?'
'I was just about to suggest that.' The chairman stood and walked around the dais to where an overhead projector sat on a movable stand next to the wall.
He wheeled the projector around, plugged it in, and motioned for Graves to dim the lights. A schematic drawing of The Store and its property was projected on the opposite wall.
Carpenter glanced around the council chambers as if searching for someone, and at that moment the door to the room opened. A young man dressed in an expensive three-piece suit strode down the main aisle of the chambers, nodded, smiling to the chairman, and pulled a pencil from his pocket. Carpenter returned to his seat, and the man, identified as 'Mr. McBride, a representative of The Store,' spent the next half-hour going over the schematic and explaining The Store's expansion plans.
'Thank you, Mr. McBride,' Carpenter said when the Store representative had finished answering questions from the commission.
Mr. McBride nodded, bowed, and promptly walked out of the council chambers.
'Isn't he even going to stick around and see how it turns out?' Bill whispered.
'Weird,' Ben admitted.
Carpenter looked at his fellow commissioners. 'We've heard all the information we need; I suggest we put it to a vote.'
Bill stood. 'Aren't you going to open discussion to members of the public?'
The chairman stared at him. 'I didn't think there'd be any discussion from members of the public.'
'You thought wrong.'
Carpenter's jaw tightened. He started to mouth a rebuke, then apparently thought better of it and nodded. 'Very well, Mr. Davis. You have three minutes.'
Bill glanced down at Ben, who shot him a look of encouragement. 'From those plans,' he said, 'it appears as though the new grocery addition is going to be built behind the existing building.'
'That is correct.'
'I thought The Store backed up to national forest land.'
'It does,' Carpenter agreed. 'But as part of the federal land exchange program, we traded forty acres of BLM-surrounded land we owned by Castle Creek for sixty acres adjacent to The Store's property.'
'And now we're going to sell it to The Store?'
'No. In exchange for The Store's generous offer to provide park maintenance and to take over funding and organizing of the youth recreation programs, the town plans to donate the land to The Store corporation.'
'This is outrageous!' Bill glanced around the room, looking for support.
Ben was furiously writing in his notebook. The other two people in the audience were staring blankly at him. He once again faced the commissioners. 'You mean to tell me that Juniper is deliberately helping The Store at the expense of Jed McGill and then telling Jed that he should lower his prices if he hopes to stay in business?'
'Not at all,' Carpenter said.
'But you're giving The Store free land, you're going to rezone its property, and like Leander said, there're going to be no repercussions for keeping their plan secret and not telling you their intentions in the first place. Jed's been an honest local storeowner here for . . . for as long as I've lived in town, which is longer than most of you, and now you're going to give him the shaft.'
Carpenter smiled indulgently. 'Is there any valid point you wish to make, Mr. Davis? What specific legal objections do you have to the rezoning plan?'
'I don't think The Store should be given special privileges.'
'The Store is threatening to leave Juniper --'
'Like Leander said, let them.'
' -- and The Store is our town's major employer. You are reacting out of personal bias, Mr. Davis. It is our job to examine our building codes and zoning ordinances and determine from that what is in the best interests of the entire town, not just a few specific individuals.' He nodded at Bill. 'Your time is up, Mr. Davis. Thank you for your input.' He glanced around at his fellow commissioners. 'Gentlemen, I suggest we put it to a vote.'
By a vote of four to one, the Planning Commission agreed to rezone The Store's property to allow grocery sales.
'Big surprise,' Ben said on the way out.
'I see an editorial here,' Bill told him.
'There will be. But you know how well my editorials go over. People threaten to kick my ass and cancel their subscription.' He grinned. 'Luckily, we have a monopoly here.'
'Have Laura write it.'
'She's more popular than me?'
'Isn't she?'
'Yeah, but I hate to hear it.'
'What about Newtin?'
'What about him?'
'He's not making you kiss The Store's ass anymore?'
'I think that still is our official policy, but I haven't been following it lately. And I think as long as the ad space keeps selling, he doesn't really give a damn what's in the articles.'
Bill drove his friend home. 'Doesn't all this just piss you off?' he asked as the editor got out of the Jeep.
'It not only pisses me off, it scares me,' Ben said. He started up the path to his trailer. 'Later!' he called, waving.
'Later.'
Bill drove off.
_It scares me_.
It scared him, too, and he turned on the Jeep's radio so he'd have noise instead of silence on the dark trip
