CT Blue

It is with some chagrin, that I must issue a provisional correction to a charge of environmental depredation that I made against Home Depot recently. Home Depot has pleaded “not interested” to the charge of wishing to cover a Griswold farm with asphalt and ugliness, according to the Norwich Bulletin (Home Depot Refutes Rumor)

I have no one but myself to blame, having relied solely on the authority of the Norwich Bulletin in support of the original allegations. (By the way, Bulletin, technically they denied the rumor, they didn’t refute it) In retrospect, I realize that relying on the Bulletin to get the facts right is a little like relying on a blind man to call balls and strikes.

The picture remains muddy:

A spokeswoman for the Atlanta-based company said Al Boschen, vice president of real estate for the company, does not know of any proposals to build a 1 million-square-foot distribution center on the farm of Harvey Polinsky.

“We’ve checked with all our folks and we don’t know of anything,” Jennifer King said Tuesday.

The letter sent by Fred Allyn III, broker/owner of Allyn and Associates LLC, stated, “I have procured an offer from Atlanta, Georgia based Home Depot (A Fortune 200 Company) to purchase all or part of the parcel.”

Allyn wrote in the letter the Polinsky farm is a prime location because of its proximity to I-395, availability of water, topography and central location between New York and Boston.

He said Tuesday he expected The Home Depot might not know of a proposed distribution center because the proposal is still being worked out.

“In corporate America, you get all kinds of things,” he said.

Tom Giard, chairman of the Economic Development Commission, concurred.

“In fact, (The Home Depot) may not be totally in sync with their point people,” he said. “The point people, the development arm, is obviously going to be several months ahead of (The Home Depot) in preparing sites, and I would assume the development corporation who does this was given marching orders in a loose format that says, ‘We need a new distribution center,’ and off they go.”

(Emphasis added to weasel words)

In keeping with its find tradition of investigative reporting the Bulletin made no apparent effort to resolve the contradictions. I personally am at a loss as to who to believe. My reflexive ideological predilections, on which I, like so many Americans, rely for primary guidance, offer no help. Who do I believe: a soulless corporation or a real estate developer? It’s a dead heat for last place.

There is a chance that my firmly held beliefs will be reinforced in the end. They could both be lying.

So, the jury being temporarily out, I must withdraw the charge against Home Depot. I take solace from the fact that while the specific charge may be groundless, the general charge is not, so I have done no possible damage to Home Depot’s reputation.