WAWARSING – This Tuesday night, the Wawarsing Planning Board issued a negative declaration under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) regarding Walmart's application for a retail store in Napanoch, answering a question that's been on the minds of neighbors and community activists for months. Adding a new wrinkle to what has become a familiar scene since last November, over 20 local members of the Empire State Regional Council of Carpenters demonstrated outside of Town Hall prior to the meeting, as several dozen residents packed into the second floor courtroom to hear the latest in the ongoing saga of Walmart's application.

The union members assembled to protest what they believe are unfair hiring practices that Walmart often employs when building or renovating their stores throughout the nation.

"Labor in the area is very concerned about Walmart's practices — what they do when they come into a community, how they build their projects," said Charles Vealey, who spoke at last month's planning board meeting on this subject as well. "They like to import labor from out of state, undercut our area standards."

Vealy made reference to a new Walmart that's currently being constructed in Hudson using out-of-state labor as an example of these practices. He also cited an instance in New Jersey when Walmart had struck a deal with the area's carpenters' union, where local labor was hired to do work on the store.

"We're looking for the same type of agreement. When they come to put a store in the community, and when they renovate their store, that they work with our local contractors. That's all we want. We want a fair share at getting the work."

Once the meeting got underway, the many residents who came sat through the portion of the agenda not related to Walmart, which didn't get underway until about 8:30 p.m. The union members and the town residents gathered en masse despite the fact that the planning board meeting was not a public hearing, as it had been at November, December, and February's meetings. Those meetings had been held at the Ellenville Government Center, which has considerably greater capacity. As such, onlookers lined the courtroom's walls, clustered in the doorway, and murmured in the hall prior to the discussion pertaining to the proposed retail store.

Planning Board Attorney MaryLou Christiana said that the board would be issuing a positive or negative declaration at the meeting once the Walmart portion got started. At this point, an attorney retained by ShopRite, Moss Calhelha of Calhelha & Doyle, LLC out of Cornwall, rose to ask how this could be done, since the public hearing that had begun in November was still being held open. Christiana explained that the public hearing was not related to the SEQRA process, but was instead to gather community input and feedback on the project considering the vast amount of interest the application has generated since rumors of Walmart's arrival first surfaced years ago.

From here, the board went through the questions required by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), through which SEQRA guidelines are established. The majority of the questions regarding the project's potential environmental impact were answered in the negative, leading the board to issue the negative declaration; for example, the board said that the project would not have any significant impact on water, drainage, plants or wildlife, nor on the view or aesthetic character of the community, the latter two being points of contention for many of Walmart's critics. The board did say that there will be small to moderate impacts on traffic patterns (which will be mitigated by signage and a traffic light), noise (during construction), and on the shape of the project site, since there will be a small expansion of the mall's footprint, in addition to the construction of the smaller retail building that will house the Napanoch Post Office, as well as other stores currently in the mall.

In terms of economic impact, the board said that the store would have a large positive impact on the area's economy because of an estimated 200 jobs that will be created. When a resident in the audience spoke up from the crowd, asking, "full-time?" Planning Board Chairman Marty Lonstein reminded her that it was not a public hearing, and that she wasn't allowed to speak. The board also cited a resolution passed by Ellenville's Village Board of Trustees the night before, which had offered their support for the project. The village's participation and cooperation with the Wawarsing Planning Board on this issue had been an important component regarding the application suggested by the Ulster County Planning Board earlier this month. The county's planning board had also recommended that Wawarsing's Planning Board issue a positive declaration.

Now that the retailer will not have to go through the process of a positive declaration, it seems likely that the project will move ahead with the next phase of its application. The planning board set the date of the continuation of the public hearing to their April 28 meeting.

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