PINE BUSH – When the Pine Bush Agway shut its doors late last year, it left a big hole in the heart of the town. There had been an Agway store there since, well, since anyone in town can remember.

And without a "feed store" or "garden store," the horse owners, the gardeners, indeed, anyone with animals or a big backyard has had to go as far afield as Walden or Middletown for supplies and equipment.

Now that's about to change for the better. Larry Dumain has bought the property and he intends, he says, "to make it like it used to be in the old days."

That means it will be a real Agway. "For the homeowner that has animals, whether it's horses or some chickens, plus dogs and cats, of course. With all the gardening supplies too, farm-home and garden."

But first, Dumain is having the property cleaned up. "The place needed some work. We took out ten or eleven 30-yard roll-offs [dumpsters] full of stuff. We've got the back and the side areas clean now, but now we're cleaning up inside. The problem there was that nobody ever fixed anything. We took out the old bathrooms, put in a new bathroom, cleared the septic lines, and fixed a water leak."

Mr. Dumain knows retail, saying, "I've been in this business a long time." He also owns the True Value store in the Valley Supreme Mall. "I believe in giving people what they want." So, for shoppers in Pine Bush and surrounding areas, the most important question is, when will the new Agway open its doors?

"I'm hoping to be open by the end of the year. But our official, grand opening won't be until next spring, when the garden season starts."

By then, Pine Bush will have an Agway that will serve the "Farm, home and garden market," says Dumain. "We'll have everything in the store that a traditional Agway store holds."