ELLENVILLE – Like any good sequel, the second part of the public hearing regarding Walmart's proposed Napanoch store offered plenty of drama and conflict — mostly, it seemed, among the Wawarsing residents who filled Ellenville's Government Center. Though the turnout was not as overwhelming as November's public hearing session, the 99-person capacity courtroom was still plenty crowded and low on empty chairs.

During the Wawarsing Planning Board meeting held on the evening of Tuesday, December 23, residents from every corner of the town voiced their opinions, many formally and emphatically requesting that the planning board require a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) from Walmart and Bohler Engineering — a process which could conceivably slow Walmart's groundbreaking in Napanoch. Other residents rose to the podium to attack those who'd requested the DEIS, becoming animated and calling loudly for the jobs they hoped the retailer would provide. Yet other residents expressed a more centrist view, voicing their support for the store and its proposed community-benefits, but asking for caution and revision in its design and architecture.

Towards the end of the meeting, Walmart representatives presented changes they had made to their proposed designs based on comments from November's public hearing session. Changes included additional foot-traffic access to the store and a reduced visual impact of the store from Route 209.

Steve Krulick, principal organizer of Wawarsing-Ellenville for Responsible Development (WERD), and vocal critic of Walmart and its practices, was asked to speak first by Planning Board Chairman Marty Lonstein, since Krulick was unable to do so during November's portion of the public hearing. Krulick took the podium and led the way in a procession of residents who formally asked the planning board to require a DEIS, while also clarifying his view of Walmart's completion of the Environmental Assessment Form, or EAF — a view he said was misrepresented in the previous edition of this newspaper.

"I do believe that the EAF that has been submitted [by Walmart] is not really complete, was done in a rather perfunctory manner," he said. "There are many questions that have to be answered that are covered by the EIS as well as the second part of the EAF — many questions that go beyond just the questions of water runoff and such. So I trust that the planning board will be as thorough with this large project as they have been in the past with many smaller projects."

Several other residents followed Krulick in asking the board to require a DEIS, including his wife Diane Krulick, Maureen Radl, and Joan Beck, who read portions of a letter prepared by David Clauser and Associates, an engineering firm retained by WERD. The letter outlined reasons the group urged the planning board to require the DEIS. The impact on land and water resources and the impact on aesthetic resources were two such reasons. The reading was cut short, however, as Lonstein enforced a two-minute cap on speakers that night.

On the other side were residents who loudly and animatedly denounced the efforts to slow or block Walmart's arrival to the community.

"It's very nice for a little community up on the mountain to worry about Napanoch, but you weren't worried about us before," said Napanoch resident Chan Rivera, referring to the perception that the majority of those concerned about the store come from the Hamlet of Cragsmoor on the Shawangunk Ridge.

"These are the facts: we need jobs here. Everybody's struggling here so bad," said Rivera. Other residents voiced similar opinions, some of whom were actually yelling and gesticulating at the assembled crowd, so strong were their feelings of support for the proposed big-box store.

"I do community service at the nearby church," said resident Cathy Link. "Yes, there are people coming in looking for food baskets, but I tell you, what they need is a damn job. And they're not gonna get it if you take the damn job and send it down to wherever, because a lot of the people don't even have a car, for Pete's sake."

Another resident, Don Decker, said that the area has "gone down the tubes," and that it "needs a Walmart, and needs it now." After giving his impassioned speech, he shook the hand of Joe Tso — the current owner of the Napanoch Valley Mall, from whom Walmart would be buying the site of their future store — and said, "I think the world of you."

And still there were yet others falling somewhere between two extremes, saying they understood the community's desires for Walmart, but were concerned about rushing to accept the store with little to no regard for its impact. Bucky Green from the Napanoch Public Interest Group said he couldn't wait for the project to get underway, but asked that Walmart work harder to "fit your store into our neighborhood."

Wawarsing resident Romina Velarde spoke, saying she was an employee of Shoprite, and asked about what kinds of products Walmart planned to stock. She said she spoke on behalf of 130 Shoprite employees, and asked, "How can we do business in a store that size without impacting local businesses?" Unrelated to Velarde's appearance, a man named Matthew Kudikoff appeared before the board claiming to have been hired as a consultant by Shoprite to study the economic impact Walmart will have on the area.

Resident John Adams also spoke, asking that the town's potential tourist industry not be harmed in the name of Walmart. He said that he wanted architectural changes for the store "to be the best Walmart in the state," aiding Wawarsing in becoming a destination for travelers and tourists.

After the residents had spoken their piece, and Walmart's representatives discussed the revisions to the sketch plans, which they distributed in handouts to the public, the planning board moved to hold the public hearing open until a date which has yet to be determined. The hearing will be held open to account for the continuing changes that will be made to the sketch and site plans as the approval process continues.

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