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Groups hope to persuade Safeway to stay By JIM DAVIS A group of community advocates and government officials hopes to meet with Safeway officials about the decision to close the chain's store in west Medford. Safeway is important to the neighborhood surrounding the store at 1101 W. Main St., said Gigi Michaels of the West Medford Community Coalition. "We want to approach Safeway and find out what it would take to keep them here," she said. The store is scheduled to close at 7 p.m. June 19. Employees will be offered jobs at other Safeway stores around the region. Safeway officials said the West Main Street store was too old and too small to meet the chain's standards, and expanding would be costly and difficult. Company spokeswoman Bridget Flanagan would not say whether the store was losing money, but she said sales were declining. Safeway's departure will leave Sherm's Thunderbird as the only full-sized grocery store nearby. An Albertson's is being built at Jacksonville Highway and Ross Lane, but it isn't scheduled to open until fall. Since the store made its announcement, Safeway has received "a couple of anonymous phone calls" against the closure, Flanagan said. A group of about 25 people who met Wednesday evening to discuss the store's closure included an apartment manager, nonprofit workers and city employees. The group was organized in part by Oregon Action and in part by the West Medford Community Coalition, both nonprofit citizen groups. Many said the store provides an important service in the neighborhood. "There are so many disabled people who live the area because of the services," said Kate Baxted of the Handicap Awareness and Support League. Bill Wenzel, who lives near the store, said he sees seniors and disabled people using it all the time. Thomas Gunn, of the union representing the Safeway workers, said the closure would affect employees -- even though Safeway has said all would keep their jobs. "Some of them may have to go to Grants Pass for their new jobs," Gunn said. The group agreed to arrange for a smaller envoy to meet with Safeway officials. Rich Rohde, the regional organizer for Oregon Action, said the group came away with some ideas for what they'd like to see at the site if Safeway does leave. But he said "a living-wage food store was the highest priority." He said that the store closure -- a little more than a week away -- gives the community little time to respond. "If you look at how they dealt with other communities (where Safeway closed stores), they really gave them more notice," Rohde said. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA