ELLENVILLE – Greeted with a show of numbers usually reserved for visiting dignitaries or celebrities, representatives from Wal-Mart paid a visit to the Town of Wawarsing Planning Board Meeting on last Tuesday, November 25 — a meeting which had to be moved from Town Hall to Ellenville's Government Center because of the sheer number of people who crowded into the meeting to hear what the corporation had in store for the community. Upon relocating to the larger space, residents still filled the courtroom beyond capacity, lining the walls and clogging the doorway to get an earful of the retail-giant's plans — so packed was the room, that it seems doubtful that any local resident reading this article wasn't already at the meeting that night.

The first public hearing regarding Wal-Mart's site-plan gave residents of Wawarsing — including Ellenville's business owners and residents of Napanoch, the hamlet in which Wal-Mart plans to locate — a chance to get an up-close look at how the big-box retailer will reshape the Napanoch Valley Mall property on Route 209.

Among the topics discussed by Wal-Mart's representatives were the retailer's plans for the construction of a new outbuilding to house a few current tenants of the mall, the changes to the mall's access and entry points, and details regarding the design for the proposed store. The representatives also said that, should the review process go smoothly, the store's targeted open-date would be in 2011, a revelation which brought boos and jeers from the assembled crowd of more than a hundred people.

One of the more hotly contested issues at the meeting was the very design of the building itself, drawing both support and criticism from different factions within the animated crowd. Perry Petrillo, the architect working on the project, presented the sketch plan while pointing out ways the corporation was going to tie the new building into the community, such as incorporating local stone and foliage into the lower portion of the building's façade. Petrillo also discussed how the company was currently "big into sustainable buildings," describing a system he called "light harvesting." Essentially, the building will be outfitted with skylights which will allow for natural sunlight to illuminate the store during the day, and when the sunlight diminishes (such as the onset of cloud cover or night-time), sensors will raise the light-levels in the store to compensate for the natural-light loss.

The sketch plan itself, however, depicts a proposed Wal-Mart which will have brown earth-tones as its primary feature, and differs greatly from many of the standard, white-and-blue "battleship" retail stores that have become a fixture of American strip malls. The design of the store drew sharp criticism from some residents who voiced concerns over whether or not the design would fit in with the community's aesthetic. Some of the more vocal critics, such as residents John Adams and Dan Rubin, called for the planning board and the rest of the community to "put pressure on Wal-Mart" to work with residents to create a design for the store that will be unique to Wawarsing and the surrounding area.

While the notion of having the architecture and design altered was said to be impossible by Wal-Mart spokesperson Phil Serghini, who said that the corporation would no longer design community-specific stores in an effort to keep from "losing their brand," the concerned residents continued to say that they should demand the very best Wal-Mart could offer.

However, as a counterpoint to criticisms of Wal-Mart's designs, there was a decidedly strong show of support for the retailer's plans, who vocally opposed any efforts on the part of citizens to impede Wal-Mart's review process in any way.

"Doesn't this town want to create jobs?" asked resident Bob Hertle, to the applause and cheers of the majority of the crowd. This was but one of the many rallying cries of those who showed unequivocal support of the retailer, who many said would bring employment opportunities and greater ease to their lives because they would be saved trips to one of the Wal-Mart stores in the outlying areas, such as Kingston, Monticello, or Middletown.

"I shouldn't have to drive an hour and a half to buy a ten dollar toy for my kid," said one resident, who seemed exasperated with the questions being asked of Wal-Mart's representatives.

Another resident, a member one of the local construction workers' unions, sought a guarantee from Wal-Mart that the retailer would utilize local construction workers in the building of the new store. Serghini said that the company would follow the standard bid-process, and would hire the company which came in at the lowest bid.

The issue of drainage was also discussed, as Frank Brown of Napanoch made the planning board aware of the plight he faces: the path the drainage from the current mall facility takes ends up in a blocked catch-basin, and he is forced to clean it out to keep his property from being flooded. Engineer John Kucich of Bohler Engineering, the firm employed by Wal-Mart, said that the company's obligation regarding drainage ends at the Napanoch Mall's property line, but that the water leaving the property will be lessened and filtered, a result of today's more stringent environmental regulations over those of when the mall was initially built. However, Kucich took Brown's contact information and said he would visit his property to take a look at the blockage, saying that there may be a very simple fix for the problem.

Having begun at about 7:45 p.m., the hearing went on at least fifteen minutes past 9 o'clock, the planning board's usual end time for their monthly meetings. Despite the fact that not every member of the public was able to comment on the plans, including vocal critic of Wal-Mart and spokesperson for WERD (Wawarsing-Ellenville for Responsible Development) Steve Krulick, planning board member John Constable moved that the hearing be continued at the next month's meeting, Tuesday December 23. There were grumblings both from residents who hadn't been able to speak and those who took issue with the meeting date's proximity to Christmas Eve, but the motion to close the hearing was passed unanimously, and the board went on with the evening's agenda.

As to where the next meeting will be held remains to be seen; some recommended the Ellenville Central School District Campus may be a more suitable venue for an event that will likely attract a similarly large crowd later this month.

Post-Meeting Post-Mortem After the hearing was closed, the crowd of residents formed a mass exodus out of Ellenville's Government Center's doors, and everyone was sharing opinions about how the hearing played out.

"It was a very poorly-planned meeting," said Joe Giselhart of Napanoch. "Half the people couldn't hear. A meeting of this importance should've been held either at the school or the firehouse." As to whether he was in favor of Wal-Mart's arrival to the community, he said that he was reserving judgment until he'd heard more.

Iris Friedman of Ellenville said that she thought the meeting went about as expected. "They're a polished corporation, so they made their presentation, and they're very practiced at it," she said. In response to the design and architecture of the proposed big-box store, Friedman had relatively positive comments.

"I thought it was pretty generic, pretty unobtrusive in terms of color," she said. "It's beige. A blue box doesn't do it at all, so it's definitely an improvement from the standard. I was surprised of how it was laid out, that the front of the store isn't facing [Route] 209, which I think is actually better."

Wal-Mart Spokesperson Phil Serghini also shared his thoughts about how the meeting had gone, showing that he'd run out of the 25 business cards he'd brought — a sign that the turnout seemed to exceed his expectations.

"I think it was great," he said. "We had a great meeting. It was overwhelmingly positive. Obviously people have questions, and that's what this process is about: trying to answer questions in a constructive way about what we're proposing.

"It was actually exciting to see such a good turnout in the community. People really do care about the community here; I think that's one reason why we want to be a part of this community. Hopefully we can get some momentum going."

Serghini spoke about some of the comments and suggestions regarding the store's design and site plan, referencing John Adams's suggestion to add more access for walk-in traffic from nearby residential Napanoch.

"We're going to talk about it. It's something we can explore, but because there's a slope on the backside, there could be issues of liability."

As to comments about the look and design of the store's architecture, Serghini elaborated on the corporation's position in not changing it, saying that despite the company's previous years working with communities to establish unique stores, the practice has now had the brakes put on.

"Basically, the overarching theme of the architecture, that's not going to change," he said. "We went away and we spent a year with our experts and consultants, and looked at this issue extensively. And we're very proud of our design, we actually think it's really, really beautiful, and we've come a long way in that area. We're very proud of our stores… [Opinions of the design] can be very subjective, so that's why we're trying to stick to our guns on this one."

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