By Barbara Wood
Special to the Almanac

A recent offer by a dating website to pay Woodside $11.65 million to rename the town SugarDaddie.com was meant to generate a lot of free publicity for the site and perhaps some outrage from the town over the offer's terms, which included erecting a statue of Hugh Hefner near Town Hall.

While the offer did grab some media attention, in Woodside it generated mostly, well, yawns.

The offer was made to the town in a press release on Feb. 27. In return for the cash, the company asked to rename not only the town, but also town hall, the library and the Kings Mountain Art Fair. It also asked for a key to the town for the website's CEO.

No one in the town bothered to officially respond, even when a representative of the website showed up at the March 12 council meeting and spoke during the public comment period.

"I have no 'yes,' 'no' or 'maybe' or counter proposal," said company spokesman Darren Shuster."If you want to deliver that message I'm here to listen."

"There is no official town response," said Town Manager Kevin Bryant after the meeting. "The Council's disinterest in addressing the matter effectively ends it."

Even Jamis MacNiven, the owner of Buck's Restaurant who normally is good for a comment on anything going on in town, was non-characteristically terse. "I think the whole thing is a poor joke and I don't want anything to do with it," Mr. MacNiven said.

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