"I've been looking at that view for 30 years, you can't build houses there." And, "I bought this house for the peace and quiet; building more houses would spoil that." And, "My kids ride their motorbikes on that land; I don't want it built up." And similar, good, self-serving, reasons.

Way back in the 1960s, public hearings on building proposals and even zoning changes, were often turbulent. Neighbors indulged in long and emotional rants about their right to keep other people's property pristine and undeveloped.

Now, as the Village of Ellenville and the Town of Wawarsing do battle against slaughter houses, road races, Walmart, and other invaders, it's a relief that these hearings are conducted with rules that limit the tiresome drama and try to encourage civility — and brevity. Residents come prepared with attorneys and studies and reports that state their case, and their cases are fact-based.

Ellenville is truly an on-going case study in successful reinvention, from its early industrial days to the resort industry, then on to light manufacturing; all of which gave way to something better suited to a current economy. But now…what?

What's next?

In the continuing effort to find a new niche — to stay alive — there have been a few blunders locally. It's so easy to be bamboozled when the heavy hitters come to town, and that cycle seems to repeat itself periodically.

In the 1980s, residents — mostly in Cragsmoor — successfully fought off the installation of 666 windmills, an unproven and often unsuccessful effort to provide "clean energy." The company sold this concept of "free money" to the village, whose residents would not have to experience any of the ill effects at the Cragsmoor site of the operation.

Like many other small towns, Ellenville then was steamrolled by the cell tower industry. Powerful, well prepared companies descended on towns and villages in the 1990s, municipalities eager to get "free money" just for letting ugly cell towers locate on their most scenic landscapes.

With no local regulations in place to manage this new technology, and no one who understood the process well enough to question it, the companies were in complete control and they moved fast. The village was offered a pittance of the going rate, and in their eagerness to cash in, did not realize they were being cheated. When an official who was around at the time of the "deal" was asked recently about provisions in the contract for removing these monstrous intrusions when they became obsolete, he said, "I don't think they even thought about that."

These days, local officials and concerned residents sally forth into the arena with Walmart, armed with better tools and more reasoned arguments. But local officials are simply overwhelmed by the might of Walmart. They just cannot know everything it takes to hold their own with a mega-corporation that has already honed its considerable skills in 3,400 American communities.

These corporations observe and make use of residents' discord, putting them in opposing camps: BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything), and CAVE (Citizens Against Virtually Everything) against RAPE (Rape And Pillage the Environment). And judging by the comments on the Journal's forum, there are a lot of CAVE dwellers in the area.

Let's hope the folks who are managing our future ask lots of questions, and most important, that they know enough to ask for help.

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