Dear Action Line: What is going on with the front refacing of Walmart and its new sign? Seems like they had a brand new sign installed a couple of weeks ago and now it is gone and replaced with a temporary blue banner. Also seems like they flip-flopped on the color the front was painted/resurfaced with. – Caleb
Dear Caleb: Is it just a coincidence that since Action Line started checking into this major community issue, the big old sign has been restored?
Look folks, when Action Line speaks, things happen, and happen quickly.
Every so often.
Action Line wasn’t keeping exact track, but can say that the bigger sign went back up between Dec. 12 and 15. However, there was a week or two there in December where the only way you could identify the Walmart building was by a blue, postage-stamp-sized banner on the storefront.
Undoubtedly, crazed Christmas shoppers were driving around town for a while wondering where the megastore was, or if it had just disappeared, or been swallowed up by Home Depot or something. “I know Walmart was along here somewhere …”
Thankfully, all is well that ends well, and the big sign was back in place for the late rush. Some of you last-minute holiday shoppers will read this on Christmas Eve, so rest assured, if you drive from town along U.S. Highway 550/160 and look very closely to your right, you will see 2,000 cars and trucks and motor homes jockeying for position in the Walmart parking lot; look beyond the vehicles and streams of people and you should be able to pick out the big beige building.
Follow the crowd, and try to stay calm. Deep breaths. Holiday spirit.
What Walmart was doing was a repaint/remodel of the store’s exterior. There’s now some white horizontal stripes and some dark brown, and all sorts of other pretty colors to take in. Exciting times, for sure.
The full process was “a bit of a saga,” said Dan Armentano, a planner with the city’s Community Development Department.
Walmart began painting the exterior around Thanksgiving in a gray color, but unfortunately started without the city’s approval. You long-timers will recall that the city made Walmart jump through some design hoops to get its original approval back in the mid-1990s. The type of paint job and colors and sign were part of that approval, and the city wanted to preserve the original colors to some extent, Armentano said.
A new, big Walmart sign with the “spark” logo was installed briefly around the start of December, but it was too big, and the city said no to that. At that point Walmart found the largest banner allowed (32 square feet) and installed that temporarily.
Ultimately an acceptable paint scheme and new sign – both similar to the originals – were approved, and work appears to pretty much be completed. Armentano warned Action Line to not bore readers with more details.
“The outcome was good,” Armentano said. “To (Walmart’s) credit, their team was really responsive to us.”
After last week’s item about the new historic Colorado license plates, Action Line received an email from a member of the Colorado Disability Funding Committee, which is the beneficiary of proceeds from the sale of those plates.
Martha Mason of Hesperus noted that the committee is under the lieutenant governor – who at the moment is Dianne Primavera. The Disability Funding Committee coordinator is Josh Winkler, a disabled advocate in that office.
If you’re curious about where the committee doles its money, check out disabilityfundingcommittee.colorado.gov. The committee has awarded $275,000 in grants to Colorado disability organizations since 2017, and its deadline for $500,000 in new grants is Jan. 31.
A couple of weeks ago Action Line posted an item about snow removal, a topic everyone loves and has warm, fuzzy feelings about.
The city of Durango informed Action Line that its next Engage Durango Forum will feature … guess what? Free snacks! That’s right, free snacks! And there was something else. Oh yeah, snow removal.
The forum is from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Jan. 23 at the Durango Public Library, 1900 East Third Ave. It will begin with a brief presentation by Allison Baker, the city’s Public Works director. A Q&A session will be followed by a breakout session with city staff members from each department available to answer questions about ongoing projects.
For more information about the meeting, visit http://bit.ly/3Tr2idZ or contact Klancy Nixon, Durango’s community engagement specialist, at klancy.nixon@durangogov.org.
Email questions and suggestions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. Whatever your religion or beliefs, enjoy the holiday season.
