Editorial: Supermarket seen as priority

Saturday, Dec. 31, 2005 | 7:11 a.m.

West Las Vegas' only full-service supermarket closed in August 2004, imposing a big inconvenience on many residents who in the past were able to walk to and from the grocery store. Now many of them are taking public transportation or taxis on a 10-mile round trip just to do their food shopping.

The news lately, though, has been encouraging. The Edmond Town Center at H Street and Owens Avenue, site of the old Vons supermarket that closed, is expected to open in the spring. Owner John Edmond says he expects to have a supermarket in his center by the end of 2006.

Additionally, DLC UrbanCore, a development company, has struck an agreement with Las Vegas to build a supermarket and other retail shops on 10 acres of city-owned land near Lake Mead and Martin Luther King boulevards.

If a supermarket is developed, much of the credit will belong to the nonprofit group ACORN, which kept attention focused on the need; Las Vegas Councilman Lawrence Weekly, a key negotiator for a new grocery since the Vons closed, and the 2005 Legislature, which passed a law authorizing tax breaks for any supermarket moving into West Las Vegas.

The lack of a neighborhood grocery store could have been perceived as small potatoes. We are pleased that this issue is getting the attention it deserves.