WAWARSING – The town's planning board will continue its public hearing on Walmart's proposed purchase of the Napanoch Valley Mall property on Route 209 this Tuesday, February 24, at 7 p.m. Like the last two sessions of the public hearing, the meeting will be held in the Village of Ellenville's Government Center, in the main floor courtroom to accommodate the potentially large turnout these meetings tend to have.

According to the Wawarsing building department, representatives from Walmart have not submitted anything further since the last session of the public hearing, but at January's planning board meeting, they requested that the hearing be reopened at the next meeting.

Steve Krulick of community-action organization Wawarsing-Ellenville for Responsible Development (WERD) confirmed that he will be attending the meeting, and he said he thinks he will likely be joined in attendance at the meeting by Matthew Rudikoff, a consultant and engineer hired by ShopRite. Rudikoff, of Matthew D. Rudikoff Associates, is keeping track of Walmart's application to purchase and develop the property into a 24-hour supercenter.

Some residents in town, like Krulick, believe that the retailer will pose a threat to local businesses and environment, and are keeping a close watch to ensure that procedure is followed to the letter. Other residents have expressed a strong desire for Walmart to construct and open their store as soon as possible, hoping that its presence will offer a salve to the town's flat-lined economic fortunes, and offer jobs to those who are desperate for income. Tempers and tensions flared at the last session of the public hearing in December, so it seems likely that this third round of the hearing will see some more sparks flying between those who are for or against the big-box store's plans for Wawarsing.

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