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All of these words came to mind during this past year’s buzz about a New One-Stop shopping center in Napanoch. In this time we have watched, listened and conversed with many. We attended Wawarsing-Ellenville for Responsible Development (WERD) meetings (the goal was to separate fact from fiction and gain insight from this organization), spoke at the initial Town of Wawarsing board meeting when plans were announced, asked the board to guide this project in a firm manner, and we have been present at most Town of Wawarsing Planning Board meetings following the development. Vast amounts of time have been spent reviewing documents provided by Matthew Rudikoff Associates (Shop-Rite), the law firm of Riker Danzig (Walmart) and WERD.

It is with responsibility that we remain concerned with the following:

The weekly loss of $600,000 our existing community will face. Will the 90 business entities identified remain viable? What impact will Napanoch water and sewer users face? Will our state or county police agencies have to increase budgets to respond to calls for assistance? Will new projects/property be equally assessed? Will that assessment remain? How much new sales tax will flow back to the Town of Wawarsing from Kingston?

All these words have varied degrees of meaning to each reader, business person or resident; we should all ponder them. Our pharmacy business and tradition will continue to exist, though it will not exist as it has, nor could it. It will change, but then again, it changes every day.

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