Grocery Sacked

But it's going to be for your development, I said.

"It's going to be for a development of the city."

But you're going to own it.

"I'm going to own part of it."

Who's going to own the rest?

"What else do you have to ask?"

At the TIF Commission hearing, Peterson and his attorneys tried to limit the discussion to the blight test. The residents wanted to talk about everything from what they'd be paid for their homes to the fate of a nearby post office. I felt bad for the residents, even the crazy and inarticulate ones, because it was obvious that city officials hadn't done enough to educate them about what was happening. The city's April newsletter announced the polka bands performing at the upcoming Slavic Festival but made no mention of the TIF Commission hearing. Letters sent to affected residents said nothing about the home prices they should receive under the new state law: 125 percent of fair-market value.

The Sugar Creek City Council is scheduled to vote on the TIF plan next week. If it passes, Peterson will receive hefty subsidies from the city, in addition to all the condemned land. Taxes generated by the project will cover more than half of his $42 million development costs. The reimbursable costs include more than $1 million in developer fees and overhead.

Marth expects the council to approve the plan, yet she hasn't begun to make other living arrangements.

"I don't freakin' know," she says when I ask what she'll do if she's forced from her home. "Where am I going to go where the woodwork was built by my grandfather?"

The woodwork may be destroyed. But if Marth stays in Sugar Creek, she'll have a new place to buy cereal.