Garden Grove Economy

Disappointed that more merchants aren't donating prizes for the "Buy in Garden Grove" holiday shopping campaign, Mayor W.E. (Walt) Donovan said he plans to visit many of the businesses and personally ask owners to join the program. City officials have touted the shopping campaign as a way to perk up the sluggish local economy and to bolster the city's budget, hurt by a $1-million decline in sales tax revenue in each of the last two years. Officials sent letters to 2,500 local businesses.

Disappointed that more merchants aren't donating prizes for the "Buy in Garden Grove" holiday shopping campaign, Mayor W.E. (Walt) Donovan said he plans to visit many of the businesses and personally ask owners to join the program. City officials have touted the shopping campaign as a way to perk up the sluggish local economy and to bolster the city's budget, hurt by a $1-million decline in sales tax revenue in each of the last two years. Officials sent letters to 2,500 local businesses.

Re "Wage Dispute Stalls Shop Center Plans" (March 12): On behalf of 33,000 construction families in Orange County, we would like to thank the Garden Grove City Council for its consideration of construction families on the proposed Smith's Food and Drug Store project. Council members must see that with all the government subsidy being used to build this retail center, it makes sense to question this Utah-based company on its practice of flying construction crews in from Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Texas, and other states to build California's stores, while leaving local workers unemployed.

A dispute over wages for construction workers has temporarily shelved plans for a 118,000-square-foot Smith Food & Drug Centers Inc. facility and affiliated businesses in Garden Grove. The five City Council members, acting as the city's Agency for Community Redevelopment, will try to work out terms and vote on the project on March 24. The Utah-based company, which operates other stores in Orange County, would be located near Harbor and Garden Grove boulevards, near Mervyn's department store.