By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
VICTORIA—Infrastructure is almost complete on land that will soon be home to a Dollar General location.
A recent desire for the company to evaluate Victoria as a potential location was discussed at an Imagine Ellis County meeting in March 2022.
A committee was formed, and a little more than a year later, on March 31 a landowner contacted the city requesting annexation of land just outside city limits on what is now 1401 Old Hwy 40 after Dollar General had expressed an interest in the property.
The land is not contiguous to the city limits, and so Ellis County also had to approve the annexation, Mayor John Schulte said.
“There's a little strip of land in between Dollar General and where the City of Victoria is,” he said. “So, it was a bit of an odd process that we had to meet with the county commissioners, and they gave their OK, and then it was basically back at our court to get everything done.”
City leaders approved the annexation and then worked to attach water and sewer service to the land.
“We're finishing up the water lines, hopefully this week,” Schulte said. “The sewer line is done, I believe. And really, from our point of view, that's about all we've had to do.”
He said the company has plans to begin construction as soon as possible, with an opening expected late this year or early in 2024.
The Victoria location will be the fourth Dollar General in Ellis County after the company opened a second location in Hays last year and a location in Ellis in 2021.
In recent years the company has expanded rapidly, with plans to open almost 1,000 new locations before the end of the year. Serving small communities has been a long-time focus for the Tennessee-based company that currently has over 19,000 stores in the U.S.
Founded in 1939, the chain has 31 distribution centers as well and employs more than 185,000 people.
Schulte said the community has been overwhelmingly supportive.
“It's been 10 years, at least, that we've been without a grocery store,” he said. “So, everybody has had a drive to Hays to get their stuff. We're all just excited. We will be able just to drive a quarter mile down Old 40 to get to Dollar General to get most of the things we need.”