Editorial: Petition being circulated for Kroger at Kmart

At the Jan. 28 regular meeting of the Sumpter Township Board of Trustees, resident Mary Ban got up to speak of her most-recent project. She is convinced the vacant Kmart building on Rawsonville Road would make a great Kroger store.
She said she got Sumpter’s deputy clerk to help her prepare an official-looking petition which she is circulating and plans to send to Kroger.
Ban said on Monday she spoke with Van Buren Township Supervisor Kevin McNamara and VBT Director of Public Services Matt Best about her idea. Kmart is in VBT. She said they agreed to provide information on the area for her to give to Kroger. She said McNamara told her he would sign her petition.
She reminded everyone that Kroger wanted to build at Hull and Sumpter roads not long ago, but it didn’t work out. Ban said to start, Jewell Butler of Sumpter Township gave a letter on the Kmart proposal to Kroger in Cincinnati. Ban said there is no major grocery store south of I-94 in this area and the Kroger on Whittaker Road is always packed.
There is a real need for a grocery store to service all the rural homes, subdivisions and mobile homes in the area, she said.
Ban reported McNamara said it’s “a real sound idea” and she said she probably would go to an upcoming VBT meeting to talk about it. She said it would be a shame for that empty building to turn into a U-Haul depot, as suggested by some.