By Scott Rawdon
Buckeye Lake Beacon 

PICKERINGTON - A lot's been accomplished against very difficult odds, but there's plenty left to do, said Liberty Township Trustee Nancy Montell, who spoke to members of the Ohioans for Responsible Rural Development citizen's group Tuesday night at the Pickerington Church of Christ.

ORRD members invite local government officials to speak at the group's meetings regularly. Montell was the sole speaker and no alternative points of view were presented at this particular meeting. She has been a controversial figure since promising to end what she called the "Good Ol' Boy" style of township government when she and Trustee Tim Linkhorn were elected 2005. They defeated incumbents Dave Keller and Keith Taylor. Montell and Linkhorn serve with Trustee Ivan Ety, who was already in office.

Etna Township - Wal-Mart no longer plans to build a store at the intersection of 310 and 40 (NE side).  We tried to provide the link so you can read the article but this news is not available online.  The article is available in the Thursday, Oct. 2nd newspaper.  Sum and substance, it was long battle between resident, Guttentag and Wal-Mart.  Wal-Mart wanted to build a 203,819 sq. ft. store on the site.  They later downscaled to a 184,189 sq. ft. store.  This is when they decided not to build.  Wal-Mart said that their company would slow expansion in response to shareholders' input and focus resources on existing stores.  Guttentag could not be happier....and says they just picked the wrong spot to build!  He added that this withdrawal now gives Etna Township officials the opportunity to tweak a township state wide plan completd by the Columbus planning firm MSI - and time for them to do the right thing!   We thought you'd be interested to know this! 

ORRD