MASSACHUSETTS SITE FIGHT: WAL-MART WON’T LIMIT HOURS

Wal-Mart does not plan to limit store hours [Worcester (Mass.) Telegram and Gazette]

LANCASTER— Wal-Mart will not change its plan to have its proposed Supercenter off Old Union Turnpike be open 24 hours a day, in spite of a request from town officials and residents to limit the hours.

Last week, Town Administrator Orlando Pacheco sent a letter to James M. Burgoyne, a Lancaster lawyer representing Wal-Mart, asking that store hours be 5:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.

In an e-mail yesterday, Wal-Mart spokesman Christopher N. Buchanan said Wal-Mart will not agree to limited hours. 

“A 24-hour Wal-Mart will be continuously monitored by cameras and on-site managerial staff during day and night hours of operation,” Mr. Buchanan said in the e-mail.

In addition, he said, the parking lot would be closely monitored for undesirable activity, and because the store would always be open, someone from the store would be available to handle problems.

Mr. Pacheco said in the July 17 letter to Mr. Burgoyne that the selectmen received a petition from the anti-Wal-Mart group, Our Lancaster First, asking that the store not be open around-the-clock.

The petition, which contained 370 signatures, said the group is opposed to bright parking lot lights, headlights from cars, noise, and also fears an increase in crime.

Another Wal-Mart is under construction a few miles away in Leominster, and residents there succeeded through court action in getting its hours limited.

Posted by Beth Gostanian on Thursday, August 02, 2007

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