Monongah myth surfaces again

If Monongah got a dollar for every time a rumor popped up that the Family Dollar construction was going forward, it could build the darn thing for free!

The latest report:

“The mayor (Greg Vandetta) reported at the Council meeting that he received an email that our project is picking up momentum again and they should be proceeding with it soon. They will keep us updated.”

Well, it is close to time to believe in the Easter Bunny.

The Family Dollar Store birth in Monongah is taking longer than a chihuahua trying to bring an elephant into the world.

It seems like eons ago that the Huntington Bank building was razed at the site -- Camden Avenue (U.S. 19) and Walnut Street -- where the Pulice, Fiori and Gumont families took turns living on the property before the home was torn down to make way for the bank.

Francisco Pulice was the earliest occupant among those families, followed by the Nick Fiori family. 

As children we used to play baseball on the vacant land across the street from the Carlot Grill against a team put together by the late Bill Birdsell, who married Fairmont Field Club pro Reggie Spencer’s daughter, Barbara, and became a golf course maintenance guru in Florida.

During all the delays, Dollar Tree bought Family Dollar but will keep the name on the Monongah building, if it EVER is finished.

Dollar Tree, whose headquarters is Chesapeake, Virginia, has 4,900 stores. Family Dollar, based in Matthews, North Carolina, has 1,400 stores. Dollar General, out of Goodlettsville, Tennessee, has more than 10,000 stores.

There is a Family Dollar on East Park Avenue in Fairmont and a Dollar General in Worthington and at the Country Club Road shopping center and mall.

Monongah Town Recorder Patty Steele McCombs once wrote: “We’re keeping fingers crossed the project may be taking off soon.”

Those fingers must be crippled with arthritis by now since the new building has been in the talking stages for a few years.