WAWARSING – Rumors regarding a visit from a film crew at next Tuesday's Wawarsing Planning Board meeting circulating through the town and village have been confirmed. Lori Gordon, a producer for CNBC will be bringing a crew to the next planning board meeting, which will feature a public hearing regarding Walmart's application before the board, for a documentary tentatively called "The New Age of Walmart," a follow-up to "The Age of Walmart" documentary that was produced about five years ago.

"This is one of several shoots that we'll be doing," said Gordon in a phone interview on Wednesday. "It's a public hearing. We're following a process of how a store gets to its final stages of opening, kind of point-by-point. And because of the time frame, we can't use one store, so we're using several in various stages."

Gordon said that the documentary is slated to be aired this fall, in either September or October, at the latest.

Just what will be discussed at the upcoming meeting regarding the retailer's application remains to be seen. Last month, the planning board issued their negative declaration concerning a SEQRA study of the site at the Napanoch Valley Mall, and they will reopen the public hearing regarding Walmart's application at this month's meeting. The public hearing was not open when the declaration was adopted.

When asked about potential action or litigation against the planning board, Moss Colhelha, an attorney retained by Shoprite, said, "I really can't respond to that in any way at this point." Similar questions posed to Matt Rudikoff, a consultant retained by Shoprite regarding Walmart's application, yielded similar results, with Rudikoff saying, "I'm not authorized to discuss anything having to do with potential litigation."

"We're going to attend that meeting and see what [the planning board is] doing," continued Rudikioff, "and try to offer input, but we don't have any other definite plans that I'm able to talk about."

The planning board meeting will be at 7 p.m. at the Village of Ellenville Government Center on Tuesday, April 28, in the first floor courtroom.

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