Wellsville, NY. The Road To Wellsville

Group against Wal-Mart gets their day [Wellsville Daily Reporter]

WELLSVILLE — Tuesday night’s meeting, advertised as a Pro and Con Wal-Mart discussion, was civil but a little lopsided.

Four out of the five panelists on the platform were anti-Wal-Mart while one, Professor Lynn DuPuis of Alfred State College, was unbiased. She teaches landscape and design and waste water treatment at the school. She warned that any development near the Genesee River should be done with attention paid to where the water is going.

The other panelists were Wellsville businessman Rick Whitwood, Councilwoman Barb Graves, Hornell businessman Joe Duffy and H.M. Bateman, who is the president of the newly formed Wellsville Citizens for Responsible Development, the group which organized the meeting.

The panelists each received five minutes to talk.

Questions from the 150 or so citizens, business people, and local people were two minutes each, and at the end there was a 15-minute comment time.

The audience was cordial, allowing everyone to speak, but when it became apparent that all the panelists except one were against a Wal-Mart development the audience became critically emotional.

When one man asked why there was no one pro Wal-Mart on the stage, Bateman’s explanation was, “Wal-Mart didn’t invite us to their meeting.” A few catcalls were heard.

The anti-Wal-Mart contingent asked people to become informed and to go on the Internet and search for information concerning Wal-Mart, its labor practices, alleged low wages, unpaid overtime and only part-time employment and lack of health care programs, bad neighbor policies which don’t support local fund raisers, and causing taxes to increase because of increased Medicare costs and tax abatements.

However, some who obviously were not embedded company shills spoke eloquently for Wal-Mart.

Lynn McCutcheon, an advertising salesperson, said, “I am for any business that is going to bring 350 new jobs and pay thousands of dollars in sales tax to Wellsville. I am for any business that is going to take a piece of property that has set vacant for years and has contributed very little in property tax and improve it and pay tax accordingly. I am for any business that keeps my hard earned money in Wellsville.”

She expressed the thoughts and comments of many in the audience when she said, “I shop the Main Street’s stores, but I currently drive out of the county because many of the products I need or want are not available in Wellsville.”

She also challenged the idea that Wal-Mart kills Main Street.

“Let’s be honest, the arterial did that when they detoured traffic around Wellsville Main Street. Cannons, Rockwells, Davies, Silvers, Newberry’s, the Style Shop and many, many more are already gone. Wal-Mart did not do that,” said McCutcheon. “It’s a free country, if you don’t like Wal-Mart don’t work there, don’t shop there, but don’t make the decision for me and hundreds of other people.”

Bateman, along with the other panelists, said they were not just anti-Wal-Mart.

“We are pro-economic development in Wellsville that is sustainable, responsible, environmentally sound and which will be compatible with a strong downtown. We need companies that pay a living wage with benefits and ones the will keep our young people here,” Bateman said.

On an appreciative note, Whitwood said, “In my opinion Wal-Mart is not known to be a good partner with the community. It will swallow up many of the stores that have been good patrons, friends and neighbors who have invested a lot in this community who support Little League, youth football, girls sports and when tragedy falls, they come through.”

One lady suggested getting rid of Main Street parking meters for the betterment of Wellsville, while 17-year-old Heidi Mangels pleaded, “Don’t let Wellsville die.”

Stepping up for her hometown, Barbie Reed, who is visiting her mother Nora Zinner and who now resides in Ketcham, Idaho, said, “I don’t think having a Wal-Mart is inevitable. We were faced with the same thing you are 12 years ago. Do more investigating. After 12 years I don’t think there is anyone in Ketcham saying they wished we had a Wal-Mart — you can revive Main Street and part of that is doing just this, meeting and discussing.”

Helen McCarty, a long-time resident of Wellsville, offered a solution to the quagmire after saying, “Don’t buy a pig in a poke.” She added, “Wellsville has more stamina and get-up-and-go. Wellsville can rise above Wal-Mart. If you don’t like something, change it.”

Bateman said she was pleased with the turn-out and the discussion.

Graves explained there is no zoning in the town to prevent a business opening up, and the Wal-Mart proposal is currently in the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) stage which will last from six to eight months. After that, the SEQR findings will be presented in a public hearing. She was not sure what would happen after that.

Although councilmen Tom Hennessy and Dar Fanton were in the audience, neither offered a comment.

Posted by Corey Himrod on Thursday, September 27, 2007

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