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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-02-20066 Z 5:00 P.M. CONTINUTATION OF PUBLIC HEARING DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT WAL-MART SUPERCENTER NYS ROUTE 13 TAX MAP #105.00-01-22.211 The continuation of the Public Hearing concerning the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (Draft EIS) on the proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter was held by the Town Board of the Town of Cortlandville at the Cortlandville Fire Station, 999 NYS Route 13, Cortland, New York. The application is by APD Engineering, PLLC for a planned unit development for the construction of two future outparcels and a Wal-Mart Supercenter consisting of a single story building containing approximately 205,000 square feet of floor area with paved parking, access driveways, utilities and storm water facilities to support the proposed project, to be located at the corner of Route 13 and Bennie Road in the Town of Cortlandville, Cortland County, New York, and for the purpose of hearing public comments on the Draft EIS. The property is owned by Homer C. Gutchess, tax map # 105.00-01-22.211. Members present: Supervisor, Richard Tupper Councilman, Theodore Testa Councilman, Edwin O'Donnell Councilman, Ronal Rocco Councilman, John Proud Town Clerk, Karen Q. Snyder, RMC Others present were: Town Attorney, John Folmer; Highway Sup't. Carl Bush; Planning Board Member, Nick Renzi; Scott Smith from Clough Harbour & Associates LLP; Keith VanGorder and Stan Birchenough representing the NYS DOT; Representatives of C.A.P.E.: Robert Rhodes, Norma Rhodes, Jan Thomsen, Richanna Patrick, Ron Powell, Arnold Talentino, Andrea Rankin, Jamie Dangler, Brendan McGovern, Hilary Penney, Christyann Maxfield, Bonnie Carlson; Terry and Brian Mingle, 17 Isabel Drive, Cortlandville; James Underwood, 3153 Gracie Rd., Cortlandville; Irene Behrenfeld, 939 Walden Pond Ln., Cortlandville; Jim and Maureen Mulherin, 3262 Coventry Ln., Cortlandville; Patricia Reiger, 795 N. Lamont, Cortlandville; David Bitterbaum; Roger Thornton; Corey Preston, News Reporter for the Cortland Standard; Charles Maxfield, 1 Holiday Dr., Cortland; Ken Woodman, Abdallah Ave., Cortlandville; Gonda Gebhardt, 87 N. Main St., Cortland; Michael and Samantha Adsitt, 44 Richard St. D 115, Cortland; Roger and Melody Orlandini; Patrick Braman, McGraw; Joseph and Nancy Governali, 3316 Fairway Heights, Cortlandville; Darryl Hollenbeck; Rich Cherry; Richard and Theresa Henry, 4046 Collegeview Dr., Cortlandville; Natalie Jones, 3697 Fairview Dr., Cortlandville; Mike VanWinkle II, 330 McLean Rd., Cortlandville; Ed Triana, 795 N. Lamont, Cortlandville; Marie Kautz, 2283 Walden Oaks Blvd., Cortlandville; Jim Murphy, 1122 Route 392, Virgil; Richard Buttny, 2298 Carson Rd., Virgil; Robin and Greg Dunham, State Route 41A, Homer; Melissa L.P. Chan, 3285 Coventry Ln., Cortlandville; Pam Jenkins, 3923 Highland Rd., Cortlandville; Tom Pasquarello, 743 Sleepy Hollow Rd., Cortlandville; Marianne Bertini, 9 Forrest Ave., Cortland; Steve Lissberger, 3289 Coventry Ln., Cortlandville; Colleen Kattau, 16 James St., Cortland; M.N.,12 Frederick St., Cortland (name could not be deciphered); Krystal (last name unknown), 582 Houghton Hill Rd., Homer; Anne Vittoria, SUNY Cortland; Bob Martin, 1142B The Park, Cortlandville; Ernest M. Dodge, 3926 Highland Rd., Cortlandville; Marilyn Mayer, 4074 Highland Rd., Cortlandville; Sally MacGregor, 1425 E. River Rd., Cortlanvdille; Gary Schmidt, 103 Clark St., Groton; Barbara Tupper, 3741 Lyncort Dr., Cortlandville; James B. Underwood, Groton. I� 63 MARCH 02, 2006 PUBLIC HEARING — DRAFT EIS PAGE 2 VOLUME II STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF CORTLAND TOWN OF CORTLANDVILLE 222SCOMEW4 In the Matter of PROPOSED WALMART SUPERCENTER, -------------x Public Hearing on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement continued on March 2, 2006, at 5:00 p.m. at the Town of Cortlandville Fire Station, 999 NYS 13, New York, before Jennifer A. Gofkowski, Court Reporter and Notary Public in and for the State of New York. APPEARANCES For Wal-Mart: HARTER, SECREST & EMERY, LLP Attorneys at Law 1600 Bausch & Lomb Place Rochester, New York 14604-2711 BY: KELLY A. PRONTI, ESQ. PROCEEDINGS ATTORNEY FOLMER: The first person on our list is Virginia Martelli. Is she here? And the next appears to be James Underwood. JAMES UNDERWOOD: Yes, sir. ATTORNEY FOLMER: Mr. Underwood. JAMES UNDERWOOD: Yes, sir. ATTORNEY FOLMER: Come right up. JAMES UNDERWOOD: For all you that you know me and for all you who don't, this is who I am. I'm James Underwood. I live over on the Gracie Road on 13 acres of land. If you're wondering about my manner, I just finished up five years in the Marine Core. There's no need to applaud. It was a voluntary service, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. My statement about the impact of Wal-Mart. Well, it would really not be a good thing. I am not for or opposed -- and this has to do with environmental impacts. I am not for or opposed Wal-Mart, but I did just move from a town that had a Supercenter in it. And on average, 85 percent of small business failed within the first five years and that's a general statistic. Normally, the general statistic comes from lack of capital. This was not lack of capital. People could not compete. How would it affect here? Well, what's the difference between a Wal-Mart a Super Wal-Mart? Groceries is the first one; right? And where's Wal-Mart going to buy its groceries from? Is anyone familiar with Dedrick's Food Stand down in Dryden? I know I am; that probably won't be there. The impact spreads out much, much, much farther than that. You have local farmers now who continually sell their land. As a matter of fact, the folks at Walden Oaks, if they're here, when I was a kid, I bailed hay on that land with my father. I was riding the tractor while he was throwing the hay bails. I'm a dairy farmer by trade. My family's lived on Gracie Road for 160 years. My house is 170 years old and I'm fixing it. I got an industrial park coming in down the end of the road, but it's not a bad thing, because I heard the key energy -- the key thing is renewable energy source. Well, that's another question I had about their environmental impact. How come no solar panels? I'm spending the $8,000 to put solar panels in my house so I don't have to rely on 6� MARCH 02, 2006 PUBLIC HEARING— DRAFT EIS PAGE 3 National Grid or NiMo. $8,000, a one-time investment. New York State offers 40 percent of the cost to put it up. 40 percent plus a tax break. Hey, and the more electricity Walmart would draw, the more they're going to charge you in your wallets. It's just an interesting fact. Another interesting fact is, see we had CAPE members here. This doesn't necessarily pertain to water, but it does kind of. Trees. Who burns wood here? Who used to? I used to. Now I'm kind of, like, half and half. Why am I half and half? I'm burning corn. For all of you who don't know, corn is just as efficient as petroleum oil, natural gas and any other substance with almost half the emissions and almost zero cleanup. As a matter of fact, I went down to the feed store today and took advantage of the $5 for a 50-pound bag of feed. That 50-pound bag of feed will last me a day and a half? Where else does this come into play? Well, I understand the man who is selling the polo field to Walmart so they can put it there, might think that's the best opportunity. Can't be so wrong. How do I say this? I am right in the middle of a college degree right now going through for business impact studies. American Military University. I'm about halfway through it and I'm continuing on. We are on the verge of a revolution. That's a very harsh term, especially coming from a former Marine. But I say this because if you think to yourself, why does Wal-Mart want to come here? It's not because Syracuse don't want 'em or Ithaca don't want 'em; it's because they see income. Why do they see income? You're asking yourself, wow, this is Cortlandville, there's a lot of farmland. Well, with corn and soybean being the next viable energy sources, Cortland County and Cortlandville, in particular, are having a lot of farmland. That is a lot of money that's going to be flowing through here. If You think I'm crazy, take a look at Illinois: One of the biggest corn producers in the world. What are they doing? They're building corn driers and soybean driers and soybean press so they can press soybeans to make bio-diesel, which is the future in corporation. Hydrogen? I've watched the military test hydrogen in the flight line. It is not viable, no way. We have 1 gallon of hydrogen put under 300 full pounds of pressure, not even close to what you take in car impact. The explosion rocked the flight line so you could feel it 50-feet away. So they're pretty far off with hydrogen. Electricity. Ali, propane will run out eventually. But soybean biodiesel, half the emissions, much cheaper to produce and we have a soybean factory in Homer. If Walmart comes in and takes up this polo field, there's going to come a time when all the farmland needed will be used. It's only a matter of time with that. Someone will be kicking themselves in the butt thinking, gee, I could tear down this Walmart and really grow some corn there. By then the option won't be viable. Will not be viable. Another questions -- questions I have, they're not meant to be answered now or whenever. As far as the impact of this goes, not directly so much to Walmart, but I just — I just moved back two months ago so give me a little bit of play here, please. I was wondering if the approval of this would have any impact on the future or approval of the Fingerlakes East? Would this set a precedent? I don't know if it's already been passed. I'll do the researching farther. That's my mistake. But if it hasn't and this passes, that will weigh on the decision in the future. And as far as IT jobs, well, that's one point I forgot and saved it for last. What did I do in the military? Electronic calibration and electronic counter -warfare. Means I'm an IT guy. I'm in the area; I've been in the area for three months looking for an IT job. Calibration was my specialty. Which those of you probably seen it in movies, commercials; it's taking off. Calibration is taking the test equipment you use and making sure it's accurate to a certain degree and then forwarding it back so you can use it. IT jobs. I've had offers from Lockheed -Martin, from BA Systems in Binghamton. Lockheed Martin is in Syracuse, we all know. The one I am going to accept is from EMA. Anybody here from EMA? EMA, down in Main Street. They work on high voltage, three-phase variable motors. They provide the power assembly lines and you stuff you see in the factories. Well, that brings me to my final and closing part. How many people here are under the age of 25? How many people are here under no obligation? Well, under 25. I'm sorry. Under 25 with no obligation? One. You know, does anybody here take the guess where the rest of everybody to 25 years old? Probably studying, working or they've joined the service or gone. Out of everybody I met from New York they said they missed three things: The water, the air and the people. And that was while I was in the service. And I could tell you most of your young people will not come back. Five people I graduated high school with are not coming back to this area. Are not. And that's an impact that you won't feel for 10 to 20 years down the ! 5_ MARCH 02, 2006 PUBLIC HEARING— DRAFT EIS PAGE 4 road. Are not at all. They've refused to. Because of the retail environment that is in volume here. You're seeing more and more retailers, less and less job sources. Everybody wants to take your money; nobody wants to give it to you. Everybody knows with the internet these large retailers are getting a hurting put on them. You think I might be wrong? Check the statistics. I order stuff from the internet; everybody does. Even with the 8-percent sales tax New York takes from you now which is great. Sorry about the sarcasm. It's still cheaper. What it does is, it eliminates these big, big retailers that stock stuff on hand. Yes, it eliminates jobs, as well. How high of paying jobs? Is the question you have to answer. You're probably wondering how I could stand up here and talk in front of you many people and waste all your time? I won't go through my total history, but I will say: At 24 years old, I have $110 negative — not negative, positive equity. I've never been good with words. 110,000 of positive equity. I own 13 acres of land and I own a house that is paid for at 24. That's pretty good. It's not as good as I'd like it to be. Another impact of Wal-Mart coming on has to do with me owning and stuff. What I did down in the military on the side, I flipped houses. Does anybody know what it means to flip a house? It means you buy a house next to a developed area and you fix it just little bit and you sit on it and you wait probably like 6-8 months, sell it to a business. I turned $28,000 in six weeks. $28,000. Sounds great for money, but what does it mean? For the Walmart next to Walden Oaks, it ain't gonna be long before other businesses want to follow suit. Walden Oaks, if they say your assessment won't go up, yeah, right, that's all I can say. There's no way I am going to -- I have watched it. I have watched one of my best friends buy a house one block away from a Home Depot, waited one year, he bought the property for 72,000. The house was junk. He bulldozed it over. In one year, the town expanded, zoned it commercial, and once they zone it commercial, he sold the property for 1'/2 million dollars. And then, like a smart business man, he reinvested it. No capital gains tax. Just something to think about. Apologize if I seem rudimentary, brash or any of those terms. Being a dairy farmer, being in the Marines, it's -- big words are not in my vocabulary anymore. Simple, effective words, that's what I try to use. Thank you. ATTORNEY FOLMER: Mary Miner. Mary here? BOARD MEMBER: You know, I know we're not supposed to say anything, but I think it's incumbent upon on us to recognize and thank this young man for the service to the Town and to his country. We appreciate his comments. We're really glad you're back safe and sound. Thank you. ATTORNEY FOLMER: Next on my list is Carol Kannus. Am I saying that correctly? And then Alice Rogers. I may not be saying this right because I can't read it for sure but maybe Jim Mulherin. JIM MULHERIN: Thank you, John. I'm Jim Mulherin, Walden Oaks Resident, and I live at 3262 Coventry Lane. Good evening, Board, and thank you for the opportunity to hear from us here concerned constituents went. This Public Hering is not just about the DEIS. This hearing is about you, the Board, making a decision for this community that will last a lifetime. I'm sure the board has to weigh difficult issues when it comes to decisions like this and is concerned about how the community is affected for an elected board to make judgments or decisions relying on communications with professionals, consultants, community members, town, county and state officials. As stated previous -- in previous comments and concerns from last night - not too many tonight so far -- review of the DEIS had revealed numerous inaccuracies with the report. Having read the scoping document, that the Town issued to Walmart and the DEIS report, a conclusion can be made that some of the issues in the submitted DEIS stem from insufficient content and request in the scoping document. So, on February 1st, 2006, when the lead agency, Town of Cortlandville, Town Board had voted into record that the DEIS was complete for public review, I can only conclude that every board member and the Board's consultant has reviewed the documents and addressed the inaccuracies. But what has been heard last night and tonight is that projections made that are given alternatives stated are not sufficient to allow approval of a complete document. The following are items in the DEIS that need further evaluation. MARCH 02, 2006 PUBLIC HEARING— DRAFT EIS PAGE 5 How was it determined that there was a need for Super Walmart in Cortland when there is a sufficient store already? Who in the Town had done a feasibility study to confirm the need? The Scoping document asks about reasonable alternatives for other potential sites. The reply in the -- the reply from the Applicant is clearly insufficient and no supporting data was given for specific alternate sites considered and reasons why those other sites will not work. I'm sure that there are other available properties that fall under the SEQR provision stated in the DEIS. Our town board members should be the best source of that information. In the DEIS, Walmart states that there's particular concern of impacts of new noise sources on the single-family residence located east of the building. The revised design presented last night now indicates that the trash compactor, truck traffic has been located to the back of the building, which would probably reduce some of the noise levels. But I believe that if you look at the design still in effect that the compressor house will still be located on the east side of the building. And with that being a large portion of the side of the building, that can still be a great contributor to the noise levels close to the residence that border the property. The noise data given, which I think was pointed out last night in the DEIS, is borderline information and it has no room for increase in noise levels before it exceeds the guidelines that have been established. This is unacceptable since the design has no mitigation measurements for the eastern properties. Again, a reply in the DEIS does not meet the intent of the scoping document. The proposed lighting for the parking will still have an impact on most residents on Walden Oaks. In Last night's meeting, Steve Cleason had presented that they had lowered the level to 30 feet. The 30-foot pole elevation should still be reevaluated. I still believe that the elevation differences between the properties and the top of the lights cannot prevent the light spillage onto the properties. The DEIS data, at this point, can't support the evaluation without an elevation view done and designs to determine the actual impact. I believe this should be reviewed again. The impact on critical viewpoints depicted in the DEIS is hypothetical and only addresses the viewpoints when trees are in leaf -on times. There is only one viewpoint from the Walden Oaks Development and it is evident that the Applicant was more concerned about the two viewpoints from Route 13 which shows some type of mitigation measures in place. No attempt was given to mitigate the one viewpoint, which is viewpoint number 4, figure 15 in the DEIS, from the Walden Oaks Development nor does the DEIS address viewpoints during leaf -off times. Again, the Applicant has not completed what was requested in the scoping document. This should be reviewed again. The planned stopped controlled two-way roadway as shown on the site plan off Bennie Road that leads to the site, Walmart site, should be eliminated for the following reasons: The DEIS states that Bennie Road in the proposed project intersection is projected to operate above average during both peak periods. If this is correct, then this predicts that the traffic will increase dramatically creating more vehicle noise along Walden Oaks Development. My house and several others sit along Bennie Road in that development. We experience all the issues with this road right now that we have. It will be harder for residents to exit safely from both the exits with cars travelling now at 55 miles an hour down Bennie Road. During the summer months, when the golf season is in full swing, golfers leave the development after tournaments, league play -- and league play. This is a very congested time that has not been considered in the DEIS study. Motorists will use this road to a short cut -through causing one more place on Bennie Road to have an accident or tie-up. The Applicant did not consider that the planned road is at the bottom of a nole in Bennie Road and when vehicles crest that nole, they don't have very much room to stop when they're going 55 or 45 miles an hour coming down that hill. Also, there's no guarantee that the delivery trucks will not use this road; therefore, increasing noise problems, diesel -emission smells, which are issues that the Applicant themselves are working hard to eliminate. The Applicant has not considered the implications and the Town Board should seriously consider eliminating that access road to the proposed site. In the section of the DEIS that addresses the low water pressures in the Walden Oaks subdivision, the Applicant's conclusion is that the elevation of the subdivision is the problem and then there's the potential of water pressures as low as 5 to I OPSI, which I believe some people 7 MARCH 02, 2006 PUBLIC HEARING— DRAFT EIS PAGE 6 know what the code is, is below the low -- local and state code which requires for residential housing. The Applicant is considering a secondary water main to their site that they claim will offset any further impacts to the low pressure problem. But I quote in the DEIS, "Without a full evaluation of the water distribution system, other -- other contributing factors or solutions cannot be identified." That's a quote from the Applicant in the DEIS. The Applicant's solution does not indicate that it will help or hinder the residents in Walden Oaks. Although, we are stuck with this issue that plagues us, the Town Board should require the Town Water Department to do a full evaluation of the water system and provide us with adequate pressures before any type of development is approved. The most disturbing issue which overshadows esthetic issues was the incorrect data in the DEIS on property tax revenue in proposed tax abatement. As stated previously, this data should be reevaluated and resubmitted by the Applicant with the correct information and calculations so that the Town Board and the public can assess the value that a 205,000 square foot retail store brings to this community. The Town Board has an obligation to review the correct data in the DEIS and verify the impact and be honest with the taxpayers about a planned tax abatement so that taxpayers don't have the impression that they are subsidizing the expansion of Walmart. Lastly, I'm more convinced than ever that the scoping document and the DEIS are truly incomplete. I can only conclude that there was a rush to get where we are today and that there wasn't the kind of painstaking thorough analysis that needed to be done, despite serious issues being raised and despite the involvement of the wide variety of agencies and experts. The Cortland Town Board should seriously consider that this project be located somewhere else and demand the Applicant provide the accurate information so that they burden the cost and not affect the quality of life that Cortlandville community has come to enjoy. Thank you. ATTORNEY FOLMER: Andrea Rankin. I know Andrea is here. ANDREA RANKIN: Thank you for having a public hearing on this issue. And first of all, I'd like to present a petition against the proposed Walmart with, approximately, 2500 signatures and it reads: "We the undersigned object to the building of the Walmart Supercenter to the south of the existing Walmart in Cortlandville Mall on Route 13, the proposed store and a thousand new parking spots would cause the paving over the polo field which is located above Cortland's sole source aquifer." To Mr. Tupper and members of the Town Board: Linda Hartsock, director of community Business Development Agency, could probably be the most pro -businessperson that I know. In her regular column in the Cortland Standard she lamented that huge trade deficit with China. She states that this has resulted in current thinking that our consumption of cheap goods is equated with economic development. This quote, "Drive to produce cheap goods has come home to squeeze us. Since 1970, the real values of our wages has fallen 35 percent, that the true price -- that's the true price of low cost goods. We -- yet we keep consuming more." End quote. Hartsock says that, "Unfortunately economic development is measured by the number of retail stores such as Gap, Banana Republic or Starbucks." Then she says, "Does a 4-dollar cup of coffee give you a better quality of life?" It is a false picture of economic growth and development that Walmart presents to us. Walmart has gargantuan needs for cheep goods and cheap labor. 10 percent of all US imports from China in 2002 went to Walmart according to Business Week. Walmart exerts undo pressure on its suppliers to constantly reduce their prices. Walmart, perhaps, is too powerful, too huge. We learned from Smith Corona that having a huge company in our town was not overly advantageous when it came to plant closing and worker displacement. This is a quote from Business Week: "If Wal-Mart ever stumbled, we've got a potential national security problem on our hand. They touch almost everything." If they ever really went into a tailspin, this location would be significant and traumatic. Our analysis of the DEIS shows that Walmart's rosy economic projections are false. The property tax gains promised by Walmart are inaccurate at best and, at worse, those gains appear to be offset by the higher taxes that would be required because Walmart, the richest company in the world, forces taxpayers to subsidized the low wages they pay their employees. Walmart claims that they will create 200 new jobs by building the supercenter. Peer review research shows that for every 200 new jobs created by Walmart only 20 are there in five years. So the 180 supposedly new jobs by Walmart, created as a result of the super store, are simply a transfer of employees from stores that have been driven out of business by Walmart's M MARCH 02, 2006 PUBLIC HEARING— DRAFT EIS PAGE 7 artificially low prices. Artificially low because you and I pay their employees' healthcare costs; artificially low because Walmart's cost of Salmon imported from Chile does not reflect the cost of raising those fish in an environmentally sustainable manner; artificially low because Walmart can circumvent decent labor and environmental standards in the third -world countries from which they import most of their goods. I urge you, as our representatives, to make the right decision to save our aquifer from a company that has a terrible record of labor abuses. In closing, I can only quote my former boss, Jim Hughes, the director of the public health department of Cortland who said upon receiving a very elaborate mapping of the aquifer, compliments of Smith Corona's million dollar TTE pollution settlement, he said, "If we only had known the flow of the aquifer before, we would have never allowed such development in Cortlandville." ATTORNEYFOLMER: John Carroll. JOHN CARROLL: Good evening, Board Members. My name is John Carol. I'm a resident of Virgil. Can you all hear me back there? Last -- two weeks ago at the board meeting at that time, Mr. Nicholas Renzi approached me and he said, "John, have you had a chance to read the DEIST' I said, "Yes, Nick. I thoroughly read one of the volumes. I didn't read the other two." He said, "I thought they did a very good job." "Thank you, Nick." So Nick came up here the other night and I'm happy to say that he stuck to the DEIS; he was the only speaker that night; everyone else went off in different tangents. So that gives me license tonight to do it, as well. This is what Nick spoke about. I'm pleased to say that, as I said earlier, he stuck to the subject matter. Let me go off on a tangent. Most of us know that Nick Renzi is a member of the Cortlandville Town Board Planning Board and an ardent foe of Walmart's expansion. Nick, along with his wife, have written several letters to the editor in the Cortland Standard disparaging Walmart and its activities and the proposed building of a supercenter. Nick said to me, you know, kind things about this. And when I thought about it, I said, "Nick," to myself, I said, "This is akin to receiving a paper blessing when you said that." Let me take a few minutes to go back into history, because many people think that, you know, this is some old man up here that hasn't got any idea of what's been going on for the last three years. It's absolutely not true. I was at the very, very first meeting of what was yet to be CAPE. I knew right' then and there that I didn't want to have anything to do with that organization. I tell you why. I went into the vestibule to the church just over here and they had documents setting out and these documents, were obviously from union views and the first two I picked up they talked about Walmart's factories in China. Walmart does not own any factories anywhere in this world. So I thought, "Well, do I want to be a part of people that lie to be" -- ATTORNEY, FOLMER: John, excuse me. If you want to talk about the DEIS, that's fine. And if you want to talk about what's in it or not in it, I think that's fine. But when you start talking about an organization and categorizing its members, I think you're out of line and I hope you will refrain from'doing that. JOHN CARROLL: I it will try to it. ATTORNEY FOLMER: I don't want you to try. I want you to succeed. JOHN CARROLL: Okay. The balance of these issues will pertain -- and I'll stay as close as I can to the issues about the aquifer. As I said, I learned from experience over the last three years as much as I could about the aquifer. I attended meetings; I attended forums, so did Nick and some of the board members, and we learned as much as we could about the Walmart -- or the aquifer. Consequently, I think that from a layman's point of view I have some very good understanding of the aquifer. Some of the information that came in the paper I don't agree with one bit. One of the things that I'd like to point out, there is a mistake in here. It talks about the wages being nine dollars something cents an hour in the State of New York. That's not true. 0 MARCH 02, 2006 PUBLIC HEARING— DRAFT EIS PAGE 8 The current wage average wage of New York State is $10.17. And additional associates are giving bonuses. Let's talk about the impact on financial issues which have been talked about tonight. Walmart spends with New York suppliers 11 billion 354 million dollars across 2,614 suppliers and that supports 173,000 jobs in New York State. So by no means are they chintzy when it comes to purchasing from this country. To give you an idea the impact. They talked about China tonight. Walmart purchases 12 percent of their goods that are on the shelves from China. That's a given fact. Consequently, they're not one of these companies that purchase everything from China. I think that another thing that comes out tonight I have to talk about is some of the issues that have come up in the paper regarding Walmart and saying that Walmart does not have the population to support the Super Walmart without condemning some other stores and putting them out of business. There was a wise sage here that was a member of this board, Chairman, Mr. Raymond Thorpe. God bless his soul. He was a man who said when Walmart first came here, his direct comment was, in relationship to Kmart, they will have to be -- they'll have to put up with it. That's their problem. Kmart's problem to put up with Walmart. So he understood that competition is a normal thing and I believe that Walmart, yes, they're going to give competition, but quite frankly, they're going to do a lot of good when it comes to reducing food costs. Let's get back into the tax issue that you talked about. Later this evening I'll put a chart up and I've corrected the figures. Walmart did make a mistake, no doubt about it. However, the mistake that they made was not some criminal act. They picked up last year's figures by mistake. We'll get them corrected tonight. I'll not get into the personal issues that I was hoping I could. Let's go -- let's take a look at the map over there first. Would you be kind enough to bring me to the first map? I am going to give each of the board members a copy now so you'll have them to follow along. It's repetitive, because last night Steve Cleason went over this very same map. I'd like to draw your attention to that yellow -marked area on the map. Do you see it's over in the lower right-hand corner? That -- now, this is a map taken right from the United States Geological Survey. Now, there is a difference of opinion because Mr. Pat Redy came up here last night and he chose to look at something different. I take the government wanted this at this particular meeting. If you look at this particular map, all of the area, it says, area contributing to the recharge to industrial recovery well. The exact area where Wal-Mart is situated, all of the flow out of that area goes right over to a well which is right directly behind the JM Murray Center. It has nothing to do with the wells that are serving the community of Cortlandville or the City of Cortland. When it's pumped out of that well, it goes into a lagoon. So, consequently, the thought that they are polluting the aquifer is far from it. I'd be grateful if you could turn it over to the next map. You notice I put up there site/aquifer facts. Now, Mr. Renzi can help me on this one because he asked a particular question. NICK RENZI: My pleasure, John. JOHN CARROLL: See if your memory is that good. Nick, you may recall the question you asked Todd Miller about the size of the aquifer. What was it? NICK RENZI: This was the meeting at Cortland College? JOHN CARROLL: Yes, correct. You're there. You're part way there. NICK RENZI: I remember the question, but I don't remember what it was. JOHN CARROLL: It's 10-square miles. NICK RENZI: Okay. 70 MARCH 02, 2006 PUBLIC HEARING— DRAFT EIS PAGE 9 JOHN CARROLL: So it's 10-square miles. Now, I know the audience -- it's hard for you to see this, but I'll try and go down through these facts. 10-square miles is -- 1-square mile is equal to 640 acres; 10-square miles is equal to 6400 acres. The total site is 33.7 acres. You divide that by the 6,400 acres and you have less -- just a little bit over one half of 1 percent. That's what the total site is. Now, if we take out the outparcels, you end up with 31 acres. And you divide that by 6400 acres, you have less than one half of 1 percent, which is the occupancy of the site. If you take away the green space — in other words, you multiply the 31 acres by the reciprocal of 40 which is 60, and you have 18.6 acres, so the impervious area is 18.6 acres, dividing that by 6400 acres, you have less than three -tenths of 1 percent. I think any child of the eighth grade will tell you that three -tenths of 1 percent is a miniscule figure and that has nothing to do with being a critical recharged area. If you could turn it to the next page, please. Next one over. Next one. As I said earlier, Walmart made a mistake. Let's try and rectify it tonight. Today I've called every taxing agency involved to try and pull together the correct figures, and I hope that you can accept these figures as being relatively close. I think we have to remember that tax figures and assessments are still a fluid thing and, consequently, they can even change at any time during the next year or two. They made the mistake of picking up on last years figures. You have to start, first, with the fact that Walmart said in their DEIS that the property would end -- would be valued at — if you take out -- first of all, you have to take out the two outparcels which are about $200,000 in total land value. So you come up with this figure of 7,200 -- I'm sorry, 7 million 230,227 dollars. That is the value in which they set in the DEIS. Now, the land is a little bit of a questionable figure, but let me explain where I took the land figure from. Your assessor, Mr. Briggs, wrote a letter to this board in 2003 and he set the land value at 5,000 -- sorry, one million 564,000 dollars, I have reduced the land value down to -- I've taken the 200,000 dollars out, so the land value that you see is one million 458,266 dollars. I subtracted the land value to arrive at the building value which is 5 million 771,961 dollars. Now, assuming that they do obtain the 50 percent, 485 being property tax exemption, only the building is reduced by the 50 percent; the land doesn't get reduced. So you have a taxable base of 4 million 248,404 dollars so your revenue stream for the first year at the correct rates: The town rate of 355 and the county at 1384, and the school at 1532. Now, one of the things Walmart didn't do is, they didn't add in the fire, which should have been. That's another revenue stream for the Town for Cortlandville and that nets you $10,484 with total contribution of 149,065. Thank you, gentlemen, for your time, your patience. I hope I didn't rub anybody one way or another. ATTORNEY FOLMER: Terry Mingle. TERRY MINGLE: Good evening. Thank you for letting everybody speak tonight. My name is Terry Mingle. I live on Isabell Drive in Cortlandville. I hope you had a chance to read my letter in last night's Cortland Standard. But if not, you'll be hearing a little bit about why I'm here to speak my mind this evening. If you did read the letter, please bear with me since because eventually I will probably repeat a little bit of what was said along with a little for the sake of the new argument because it is all relevant. I'll start off saying after doing a quick survey of information available via the internet by typing in the words Walmart and pollution in the Google search engine, I discovered over -- pardon me if I sound like the lottery -- one million six hundred sites that came up; all which pertained to the subject of Walmart and pollution. That got me wondering, since I was here last evening if, perhaps, the nice Walmart folks had given the same candid speeches and presentations in the other now -polluted communities before all the nice people bought their speal and welcomed them into the area with open arms. I won't go into boring details of every site that I visited, but if you own a computer or can get to the library to do a search yourself, I encourage you to do some reading. It's pretty scarey. In any case, that's not the main reason that I am back here tonight. Despite some folks' belief, because I have been reading other people's letters in the paper, my motivation is not stemming from measly employment issues or traffic hazards. Not that I'm not concerned about that, but it's not my platform. It's merely because this giant Wall Wart -- Wally World is going to sit on top of my water supply. Think about what that could mean. After MARCH 02, 2006 PUBLIC HEARING— DRAFT EIS PAGE 10 all, this is our drinking water. Just one little woopsie, one little accident can ruin our drinking water for the rest of our lives and our children's lives, as well. I'm not trying to scare you with doomsday predictions. If you really have to think about it, I mean given the environmental track record in other cities where they're not sitting on top of people's drinking water supplies, there are lawsuits going on over pollution as we speak. Now, unless you think I'm a rabid liberal, I should mention I'm actually a voting Republican and a current member of Sam's Club and I regularly do shop at our current Walmart and even the employees here tonight can attest to that. I'm a shop -alcoholic and I'm always shopping somewhere. So, basically, my method is: While that I don't hate Wal-Mart itself, I don't want them building a store in our area that doesn't need. to be in here or on top or in close proximity to the man recharge area of our sole source aquifer. I think it's a more -than -reasonable request and concern. Now, I need to repeat just a little bit of history for the record because it does figure prominently into tonight's argument and why I don't really have a lot of faith or trust in the town board members to make important decisions regarding environmental concerns. This scenario is a big d6ja vu to me. Because of that I was hesitant to show up at all because a few years back I was in attendance for a similar set of meetings for another environmental issue for Cortland County which drew a group about as large as this one in which all parties were complaining about emissions and fumes from a local asphalt plant: Suite-Kote, our good neighbors. They do donate a lot back to the community. Wait a minute. Wasn't that in Walmart's presentation, too? How much were they saying they were going to give back to the community? Well, these folks were all standing here that the fumes were making them ill. There were meetings after meetings and despite the public outcry and subsequent lawsuit in which round one was won, and the folks who brought the suit have all since moved away and they can't talk about it. But Suite-Kote is still polluting our air. Some of you say you can have clean air where you are, but where I am on Isabell Drive, many nights in the summer I can't even open my windows to get some fresh air during the cool evenings for relief from the hot days because Suite-Kote's fumes comes rolling and I have asthma and it's a problem. Of course no one on the Board or at the DEC, which I have since dubbed the Dodging Environmental Concerns Department, can smell them. As a matter of fact, our board has granted Suit-Kote additional expansion permits after they were already expanded on many occasions. I was present at one of the meetings where that little hand slap occurred. That should tell you something about how important environmental concerns are to the board. I would like to note that the health department was cordial and told me they still do get a lot of calls, but their hands are tied because of the DEC issue and even though the health department were the ones that generated the report on line -- you can look for it, search for Cortland County and asthma rights -- that our county has some of the highest asthma rates in the state, and I believe there's a prevalent issue there. Who knows since no one has any pull around here will ever investigate it because Suit- Kote is such a good neighbor. So all that having been said, that brings me back around to our current concern because now I'm starting to wonder. If we start to taste something odd in our water after Walmart is up and running, will the Board or the DEC not be able to taste that as well? Will they tell us we're imagining things? It sure does make you wonder, doesn't it? In my neighborhood, I already have a problem with not being able to breathe clean air during most of the months that I could leave my windows open. Now on top of that, I'll have to worry that my water will polluted, as well. I don't know about the rest of you. I have lived here since 1965, and it's just been getting worse and worse and I love Cortland and I don't want to see this happen. So I don't want to have worry whether I'm getting clean water when I'm drinking, bathing and cooking. Wait a minute, I bet Walmart sells bottled water. Coincidence? I think not. Thank you for your time. ATTORNEY FOLMER: Richard Patrick -- Richanna. RICHANNA PATRICK: I think Walmart should go in Virgil because they're all for it and then there won't be any... Everybody here in Virgil wants it; they're looking for stuff, they've got lots of farmland. Okay. We were given suggestions on what we should comment on, the topic in length. However, I am going to take the time to say what I think is necessary to be said here. It's not that long and I hope I can bother the Board to listen to what I have to say once every ten years. I think necessary -- it is necessary to discuss some of Cortland's pollution history because most people learn from their mistakes and I would hope we're not an exception here. MARCH 02, 2006 PUBLIC HEARING— DRAFT EIS PAGE 11 First, I want to talk about some of the comments about CAPE members and the impression that they're all liberalists, liberals, extremists, tree huggers, like he was saying. I am with Terry. I am an early CAPE member. She is not, but additionally, I am a voting Republican. I have close friends who own small businesses in Cortland. I have a Sam's Club credit card that I use now and then in Syracuse at Sam's Club. CAPE has a diversity of background in its supporters with a common desire to protect your drinking water. People should not follow any political party blindly for fear to take controversial stands. They should judge issues and candidates with an independent mind. I was disappointed yesterday that CAPE could not open the presentation here with serious aquifer facts. I felt not doing this fuel opinioned that some people have, obviously, that CAPE is primarily an anti-Walmart group using the aquifer as a front. But I assure you, I attend all the meetings and that is not the case in this case. In our two monthly meetings, the talk is 80-percent about aquifer facts and concerns. If that weren't so, I wouldn't have dropped out. However that being said, I admit anyone attending regular meetings discussing Walmart cannot help but discuss and often agree with the negative reports. Anyone can see Walmart's business practices have become more and more of an embarrassment to them as well as a documented burden to state and local economies and they need to seriously clean up their act. This is where I don't understand Walmart logic. Here they are the super richest of the marts and they refuse to save themselves from the constant daily bad publicity. If they would just match the wage and benefits of Kmarts and Targets and various grocery stores, they would have a better reputation. CAPE chose not to discuss the aquifer facts yesterday because they want to give the truest most complete facts. The facts will come soon and we are sorry for the delay. There is a proper place for these super stores but not in our town with struggling small businesses and certainly not over our aquifer. Super Walmarts and enormous Sam's Clubs warehouses are appropriate for large cities, not small towns where they suck the life out of independent small businesses with limited customers earning limited paychecks. CAPE is not against the tech park. It sounds promising collaborating with Lime Hollow Nature Center to create a responsible, professional developed environment more appropriate to the community and its needs now than the big box paved sprawl. The problem with the March of the bargain marts down Route 281 corridor is that these marts logically and agreeably out of necessity attract a great percent of shoppers at the poverty line driving cars in dire need of repairs, huge lots full of cars leaking gas, oil antifreeze, plus contaminants like road salt. Cortland's water already has considerable levels of salt in it. The Walmart is heating some sidewalks, they say. We live in Central New York. Be serious. They have 900 parking spaces. They have to use salt in the parking areas or face lawsuits for injuries of people slipping. I've seen the floating oil and gas leaks in the current bargain parking lots. We are already seeing less -than -pristine tests for chemicals in our water thanks to what we've already built. id you know our aquifer is one of the fastest moving aquifers? It moves about 10 feet per day as opposed to many others that move an average of 1 foot every five days. I take that to mean apart of is subjected to a chemical it's going to spread fast. Does Walmart have plans for spill management should it happen? Is there an on -site team that would be thrown into action immediately if a spill were to occur? Cornell has one. I did this. This is Cornell's plan if there's any spills. They have numbers; they have yes, no's and emergency plans out and ready to go immediately. Does Walmart have that? They have people dedicated to this. In local papers and on the radio, various people called in or wrote to ask us to trust our town boards that they have our best interests at heart. Well, the Board is human, too, and they can be snowballed into believing a lot of promises. I'm sure Smith Corona in our grandparents' time promised town boards that they would control their chemical waste due to their location over our drinking water. Promises do not equal guarantees. Let me give you a reminder. In the mid 1980's Smith Corona's chemicals poisoned the entire underground well for the area coincidentally across the street from the current Walmart. A large polluted well under Lime Hollow Road and Pheasant Run to LaMont Circle. Residents were not alerted to this danger for months while tests ran. The fumes of contaminated ground water made them sick, even killed the unborn. When you drive past that area now, remember: To this day, the water is still poisoned and undrinkable. New York State, as of last month, is still conducting tests there for chemical hazards and vapors. The lesson here is: One oops can haunt us for decades. The drinking water pumped to this poisoned area of our town now comes from the city. If we keep contaminating wells, what is the Board's backup plan? Is there another water source 73 MARCH 02, 2006 PUBLIC HEARING— DRAFT EIS PAGE 12 we can pump from like Syracuse does with Skaneateles Lake? Maybe Ithaca will let us borrow Cayuga Lake. Even with histories wake-up call, we are again in hyperville mode over the same, sensitive area as we plan to trust Wal-Mart and others over our water supply that flows only 25 to 70 feet below the surface of south Cortland where it recharges itself with amazing geology configurations. As one professional geologist warned us, "It might be any one project but a total of all them together that does us in." So knowing this, at what point do we decide we've pushed the envelope long enough? In a pole taken on a local radio website, 74 percent of us were motivated enough to log on with our votes saying, "We don't want a Super Wal-Mart. Enough is now." But, unfortunately, we have no official vote; only the Board has that power. We vote them in; they vote themselves 23-percent raises and they get to do what they want. Newcomers to the area don't know the pollution history Cortland's been through besides the Smith Corona fiasco, such as the Wickwire and Rosen Brothers site which was a dangerous costly New York State superfund toxic mess to clean up and cap off on South Main. Also, our air emissions battle over asphalt in the 1990's, as she mentioned. Rather -- remember at the time many of the old environmental hazards that were created then were deemed at the time no risk and were legally approved by someone in charge. Hindsight, as they say, is always 20/20. Now we know better about those misfortunes. In the 1990's, as she mentioned we had about as many people here complaining about Suite-Kote's stench as you see fighting this aquifer issue. There are still air -quality problems in Cortland in the early morning hours. If it isn't them, then someone needs to ask who is polluting our air. Cortland has a spike of high asthma rates and high -case incident of lower respiratory illness in the recent decade. In the past, I've called the DEC at 7 or 8 when the fumes are there and they show up at 2:30 in the afternoon and tell me they don't smell it. I'm not surprised seven hours later. This does not give me confidence in our system. I can't wait while -- I'd be unfortunate for the first toxic spill and they show up seven hours later. Our board, unfortunately from what I've seen, grants these big businesses with deep pockets many things, bend the rules when convenient, expand without a permit and without repercussion. I was at the meeting for that one woops. Recently Homer Oil was taken to task on pollution. I will suspect because they didn't line the right pockets or donate enough money to the County's fund organization, sports arenas, festivals, parades, political parties. Yes, we appreciate the stuff, but everyone has to follow rules and it doesn't negate the problem. Of course, I feel Walmart will be supervised by the Board in a similar fashion. Due to the situation just mentioned, I was forced to sit through entire town board meetings for the first time in my life waiting through other requests before our issues came up. I just shook my head while I watched the Board agonize whether to grant a taxi permit to one poor guy who might keep one or two cars in his driveway. The board was in a quandary fussing back and forth with each other discussing if one of the cars might leak, but the Board, merely with the same methods today, doesn't seem as concerned about hundreds of old, delapidated, leaky cars driven in by the low income shoppers who logically gravitate to these cheap marts and fast food places in South Cortland leaking gas and oil. I've seen the slicks and the puddles on rainy days. The Board trusts Wal-Mart to take care of all that, just as past town boards trusted the other companies to do the right thing. Walmart's promises of pollution protection in yesterday's slide showed me nothing if you follow their history. If you have tried that Google search, you'll find links like this one dated June 7th, 2001. It's called, "US reaches water pollution settlement with Walmart. Retailer to pay one million dollar fine." This is not printed off a union based anti-Walmart website. It's the US Department of Justice. You would assume that Walmart would have learned a lesson after paying a one million dollar fine in 2001. But, no, they did not. Again, they are fined for the very same violation August 16th, 2005. Read the rest of the articles in Google and tell me you are a hundred percent sure we can trust Walmart with the care of the main ingredient in everything we pour down our throat's every day. Now, this US water pollution statement it says: This is the first federal enforcement action against a company for multi -state violations of the storm water provisions. United States alleges that Bentonville, Arkansas based Walmart and ten of its contractors failed to comply with storm water regulations and illegally discharged pollution from several construction sites. The settlement commits Walmart to establish a 4.5 million environmental management plan to improve the retailer's compliance with environmental laws at each of its construction sites and minimize the impact of its buildings on streams and watersheds. The settlement also compels the company to pay a one million dollar civil penalty. 7 I MARCH 02, 2006 PUBLIC HEARING— DRAFT EIS PAGE 13 The other one, you think they would have learned, here we are in 2005. In New Haven, Connecticut, it says: Walmart has agreed to pay a 1.15 million dollar fine and correct a slew of environmental violations at 22 of its Connecticut stores, violations that state officials have showed a systematic -- systematic is the key here -- disregard for the law. The violations primarily involved pollution that flowed into storm drains on Walmart properties from construction work and properties stored or handed fertilizer, pesticide, waste oils and other potentially hazardous products. There is a pattern of national disregard by Walmart in this area. State Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal. Last year, 2004, Walmart officials paid 3.1 million fine to settle a federal lawsuit concerning storm drain pollution from the company's construction sites in Tennessee, Utah and several other states. The state found violations at 22 of the companies 33 stores. And Blumenthal said, it's as big as Wal-Mart is, it fails to get it right. Its failure was one of corporate culture going from the -- to the upper levels of the corporation. These violations were wide spread, systematic and repeated, he said. McCarthy said the state's efforts to get Walmart to comply with state environmental regulations began in 1999, but that officials at the company refused to take it seriously. She said the violations included fertilizer and pesticides that were washed in the storm drains by the rain and the snow melt. Several Walmarts also sold a root killer that has been banned by the federal government. The Connecticut settlement will also require Walmart to submit plans for managing storm water on its properties. The company will also have to hire a consultant to conduct seven biannual audits to make sure that its stores are complying with all environmental regulations. In addition, the company will be required to hire a consultant on storm water management for all its Connecticut construction sites for the next five years. Today's settlement sends, we hope, a very strong message, McCarthy said. The message is that, it doesn't matter how big you are; you can't break the law. Which they have repeatedly and systematically done. Not done yet. A little bit more. Walmart doesn't seem to be learning from past mistakes or punishments. Of course a million or a million and a half fine in their billionaire world is like you or I coughing up a 10- dollar parking violation. I can only hope that our town board will buy a clue and learn from Cortland and Walmart's pollution history. We not be so -- may not be so lucky in dodging these bullets, playing Russian roulette with our water supply. This is our home town and some of us are old enough to remember and liked it better when both the air and water were pure. The Town Board is comprised of elected officials. I suggest if most of you don't like their decisions, don't let them run unopposed again. Show up at the poles and vote them out the door. I've had bad luck here. ATTORNEY FOLMER: We're going to take a five-minute break so everybody can stretch their legs and the young lady can stop playing with her machine for a moment. (Recess taken.) ATTORNEY FOLMER: Next person on the our list is Dorothy Thornton. Is she here? DOROTHY THORNTON: Good evening. Can you call hear me now? I'm only sorry that one of our — my associates and pro Walmart were silenced with their opinions when I feel that a lot of other opinions were stated that I thought should have been silenced, also. I live at 238 McClean Road Extension. First, thank you to the Board for giving all of us a chance to speak about the Walmart. The DEIS is what's supposed to be on the table, but a lot of emotional issues are coming up; a lot of issues, in general. I do feel that our board is doing an excellent job. I feel that they have been onboard and I'll vote for them again. I feel that all have been done to meet the requirements set forth by CAPE representatives and the Walden Oaks representative. I do feel very strongly about that. Now I'll go on to the personal part. My family resided at 100 Tompkins Street when I was born. I left in 1974 for 25 years because of lack of jobs in the area. You speak of that as if it's a current issue. It's an old, old issue. My parents told me to leave, go find work; there's nothing here. 75- MARCH 02, 2006 PUBLIC HEARING— DRAFT EIS PAGE 14 I have -- there are six of us in the family. Of the six of us, only I came back because I missed Cortland. Other places were brought up, such as Chicago. Now so will I. I lived in Somerset, Kentucky for 13 years. Since then, they have tripled in size; much new industry has come in, many new jobs in their area, among them Super Walmarts. My three grandchildren and my son live there. They have not lost their small town, friendly attitude; they didn't change their name. It was worried that if we have too much industry coming into Cortland, what will it be? It will be a bigger Cortland. That's my opinion. My daughter stayed in Chicago where I lived for 12 years. I moved up there for an even better job and the more money. I'm the only one, as I said, of the six children in my family to have come back home to Cortland. Let's stop making it necessary to leave Cortland to make a living. There's not zero population growth here. It's just putting your head in the sand to believe that we can grow as a self-supporting community without bringing more and bigger businesses into Cortland County. I do care. I have studied indepth the possible affects on the water and the economy here in Cortland. I respect and appreciate more than I can say what CAPE is trying to do and what they have done to keep the environment safe and the Walden Oaks residents. I agree that you may have a different view than you actually wanted, but come on, you may be able to afford to shop elsewhere, but most of us Cortland residents cannot. Even when I could, I didn't. To the Board, I ask you to, please, move this forward as fast as possible. Stop the insanity. Bring new business into Cortland County. Thank you. ATTORNEY FOLMER: Patricia Reiger. PATRICIA REIGER: I'm Patricia Reiger. And I live at 79 -- 795 North LaMont Drive. I'm one of the residents who is not aware of what had happened to the water at Lamont Circle. I implore you to really think about what Walmart will be doing. I will focus on the environment impact. I think it is a very extremely large company -- or store to be moving on that piece of property. I'm concerned about the damage to our drinking water from the chemical solvents, the automotive service department and what of else will be there. There is no guarantee that a man-made device can prevent a spill. And what I've learned tonight was Walmart does not have in place what Cornell has in place, or I did not hear it last night. So I'm concerned, also, about the loss of critical open recharge area. And if I do speak with passion it's because it's my water, my child's water, which already has to be pumped -- pumped in due to the spill from Cornell or -- excuse me, from the other property business. So I'm concerned about all of those issues and I wish you, please take those into concern. Once it's contaminated there's no turning back and maybe I will then leave Cortland, because I certainly will not stay here and that my children are my grandchildren be around impure area. Thank you. ATTORNEY FOLMER: Maryanne Bertini. MARYANNE BERTINI: These are great speeches last night and there's a lot of wonderful research that you're doing to let everybody know what's going on. Appreciate it I think, I hope, on all sides. Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the Cortlandville Board. I'd like to address a couple of issues in the DEIS but, first, let me introduce myself. My name is Maryanne Bertini. I'm a resident of the City of Cortland. My family ties are deep here. With the Bertini name going back into the well late 1920's. I, like some other stories I heard, left home when I graduated from college. So many of our youth do. I have attended now many seminars in the Cortland area about bringing business back to Cortland so we can bring our young people back where it will take them to come back. Well, I came back, but I think you need to know why. It has to do with a large retailer in the Cortlandville crossing. I'm not talking about Kmart; I'm not talking about Price Chopper; I'm not talking about JC Penney. I came back to Cortland because of my job with Walmart. In 1997, I was promoted to assistant manager with the Walmart stores. The store manager requested that I work here in Cortland so that I could be a part of this team and also closer to my family. You see, at that point, I was a single mother and, as most women and maybe some men in this room, finding childcare is difficult. It doesn't matter what occupation you're in. 7( MARCH 02, 2006 PUBLIC HEARING— DRAFT EIS PAGE 15 My Walmart career began as an hourly associate which seemed to be the people who were targeted last night by many of the statements made from CAPE. I worked my way into management as a salaried position. My retail career with the world's largest retailer lasted seven whirlwind years and I would not have traded, ever. In that time, I visited many stores; I helped to hire and train; I studied the distribution centers at ongoing management training seminars; I flew to sales and stock conventions throughout the US. But not once, not once, have I ever been approached by any of the people in this room for my thoughts on hiring practices, health coverage, wage, sex or education discrimination. It seemed a shame to have to quote articles from Chicago and North Carolina when we have Walmart associates right at our fingertips and we can ask them what's going on. As many of you know, I sell real estate. Some of my most memorable sales have been to Walmart associates helping them find homes right here in Cortland County. They are not on any national or state subsidized programs. Unless you count mortgage financing in that category. They pay school and property taxes, as well as income taxes. Some of them take advantage of the Walmart health insurance while others have spouses who have courage. This is not unheard of. These associates are not on public assistance as have been inferred. But I did digress, back to the DEIS. Parts of its concern is to look at jobs and community benefits that will be offered by the development of a Walmart supercenter. Did you know that the Cortland Walmart has been in place since 1992? That's 14 years. There are over 200 associates employed presently right here in our backyard and that number will grow with a larger store. Many of these associates have been with the store since its beginning. Some were here last night; some others are here tonight. While the information presented last night was very informative, I'm not sure everyone understood all the numbers because there were new numbers and you need to know what they're being compared to. Let me give you some information I gathered personally from my experience at Walmart. First of all, I do want to remind you that there already is a functioning Walmart here in our community. They're not requesting to build something that never existed. They're requesting to move to a new area. They addressed issues of trucks last night. I'm sure that the people the Walden Oaks have issues with that. But right now, every day there are one to two trucks that pull into Walmart. I'm talking 18-wheelers, the big Wal-Mart trucks. Two trucks, generally, during the Christmas season. Walmart is not unlike any other retailer, Kmart or anything else that's in that area, that have more merchandise during the holiday season. Trucks, generally, arrive for unloading in the early morning, between 5 and 6 a.m. During business hours, there are local deliveries, not unlike what we see every day in our own lives: Milk and bread trucks, UPS, Fed Ex and the like. Regarding trash and compactor removal. At the current store, they are emptied at least one to two times each month. I got the impression from listening to the neighbors in the surrounding areas that felt like they might hear the unappealing sound of a dumpster being banged around at 6 a.m. It's not happening now. Yes, it's true, there have been police called to the Cortlandville Walmart to help unlock car doors and they have been called, as ambulances have, in the event of an accident or emergency just as they have been called to Tops or other grocery stores, McDonald's or any other fast food restaurant. You get the picture. Walmart donated money, talent and goods to local organizations. Why just today — and I left it my car in my hurry to not miss my calling, John -- I learned that they donated to the Eckerd Drug quiz game show that my son was a part of. Many times in the past I used to wait at the back door for the SPCA to come to pick up kitty litter and food that we donated to the local shelter. The associates of Wal-Mart to take part in fundraising walks for life and many other community activities, they live here and they work here and they support where they live and work. The DEIS looked at development of the land in question and how it would be used. Last night the Walden Oaks Association spoke in fear of overlooking the Supercenter. Mr. Gutchess' land has been industrial for the fast 22 years. Walden Oaks is not that old. There's been a for sale sign on Mr. Gutchess' land for the last decade as far as I can remember but no buyers. Let me just share with you what this land could be used for by right. A used car lot. Think about it. When you last drove by a used car lot, what did you see? Plenty of binding lights lighting up the sky, streamers, loud -body advertising and lots of cars going nowhere. It could be a utility sub -station with utility lines. 77 MARCH 02, 2006 PUBLIC HEARING — DRAFT EIS PAGE 16 How about a bus terminal? It's allowed by law. All those transient people wandering around nowhere to shop, no place to go except perhaps up on the hill to look at the nice houses. Communication towers and electrical sub -stations. Some say that they can cause cancer. Forget about what's underground. They're on top of the ground. Talk about ruining the view. Storage warehouses, truck terminals. These are all approved uses for this land. Let's also remember one very important fact. This land is privately owned. It's not as if we're discussing a piece of community property. Mr. Gutchess can sell this land to whomever he chooses. The question we truly have to ask is: Do we want these other potential uses put into place? Last night CAPE brought up several points that I tried to address by sharing some personal information with the Walmart associates, because I think one of these ladies mentioned that they didn't go into the water which would have been a great thing to do. CAPE is against this project, that's true. But the only -- I feel the only reason CAPE had people in this room last night and tonight was because of who was applying for development. This is not an argument driven by water. If it was driven by water and what we're doing to the water -- I don't know if you had quite a bit of discussion when the town parking lot was built; it sits on the aquifer. Where was CAPE when the Stadium at SUNY was built? The aquifer isn't just in one spot on 30 acres as John pointed out earlier tonight. We have a $3.2 million manure tank in Little York. There's water out there, too, Ladies and Gentlemen, but there's no opposition to that. There's no opposition when Mr. Gunzenhauser sold his landmark yellow barn building to a Country Inn & Suites. There is water flow back there and I live right by that water. CAPE complains that the jobs created by Walmart are not good jobs that people will take. In Albion, a suburb of Rochester, Walmart had 275 jobs to offer; over a thousand people applied for those jobs. I'm thinking that they're pretty good jobs to take. Mr. Supervisor, Board Members, there's great potential here. Cortlandville can hold the world's largest retailer accountable to be green in its next endeavor in the Supercenter on the Gutchess property. Look carefully at the DEIS, review the modifications that were made, suggest more possibilities provided by comments last night and tonight, listen to those who have testified. Over 3,000 people signed a petition in favor of the Walmart Supercenter. Over three - fourths, three-quarters of those people were from Cortland County, over half from Cortland itself. I urge you to listen to these voices and support the DEIS. Thank you. BOARD MEMBER: Mr. Folmer I just wanted to mention, if I could, just to clarify and thank and Andrea Rankin, my good friend, for bringing in these petitions. I did have a chance to look at them and I just would mention that among the signatures are people from Albany, Truxton, Pennsylvania, Florida, Syracuse, Baldwinsville, Liverpool, Dryden, Ithaca, Preble, Lafayette, Dewitt, Cazenovia, Munsville, Freeville, Cincinnatus, Depue, Binghamton, Marathon, Tully, Manlius, Locke and Groton, and most of the signatures are from the City of Cortland residents, as well as, secondarily, those citizens that live in Homer and there are a few, as I went through them, from the Town of Cortlandville. I mention this simply because in our early discussions over the months we said that we were taking a look at this as not only a Cortlandville issue but as an issue for the county. And I appreciate the petitions and we are taking the consideration of these individuals who don't live just in the Town of Cortlandville, who live elsewhere. And I wanted to make that clear. Thank you, Andrea. ATTORNEY FOLMER: Don Spalding. Mr. Spalding? Steve Lissberger. SPEAKER: I'd like to waive my comments. They were covered last night. ATTORNEY FOLMER: Thank you, sir. I'm going to get this next one wrong and I apologize before I even attempt, but it looks like to me it should be maybe Ahmad Javid or something of that? Am I anywhere near close? So far wrong that -- SPEAKER: He's not here, John. ATTORNEY FOLMER: Not here, all right. Did I get anywhere near close? SPEAKER: You're close. Und MARCH 02, 2006 PUBLIC HEARING— DRAFT EIS PAGE 17 JAMES MURPHY: Jim Murphy. Good evening, town Board Members, and thank you for the opportunity for us to speak. My name is Jim Murphy. I'm the -- I live in Virgil, 1122 Route 392. Thank you, Mr. Renzi, for pointing out last night. I am the town supervisor of Virgil and I am not speaking as the town supervisor of Virgil. I'm also board of director member of the Central New York Regional Planning Board; I'm not speaking for that board, either. I'm speaking for myself as a community resident. I think it was appropriate that you pointed that out last night, that you weren't speaking for the Planning Board. And I think maybe Ms. Rankin needed to point that out, too. You weren't speaking for the County, I don't believe. SPEAKER: I don't work for the County anymore. JAMES MURPHY: Oh, okay. Thanks. What I wanted to talked about -- I want to echo some of the comments that Maryanne made just a few minutes ago. It really is impressive to see people from this County that have taken on initiative and been so passionate about it. Some of the comments, especially tonight, and the young gentleman who was in the Marines, excellent; the young lady that spoke last night that lives up in Walden Oaks, absolutely eloquent, very nice, very passionate; these young ladies that are sitting up front, too. I think the key issue for us in Cortland County and for the Town Board and I know as a board member in Virgil and spending 22 years in town government, that when you look at zoning, zoning is inherently discriminatory. You're telling someone that they can have a piece of property, pay taxes on it, but you're putting rules and regulations on it. Now, that's good because, within reason, those rules and regulations make sense. I think Mr. Gutchess -- as was pointed out, Mr. Gutchess has owned this property for a long time; the property has been for sale for a long time. I think Mr. Gutchess has a reasonable expectation that since he hasn't sold this property, to be able to use it as some type of an investment to bring back to himself. One of the ladies that spoke tonight mentioned, would Virgil be interested in a project like this. I think that if Virgil had a project where the developer was being as cooperative as this developer seems to be with the environmental issues and the impact to the community, I think we would very much welcome that. I personally would try to that's what we're trying to do with Greek Peak's project. But beyond that, I spent nine years —on the Cortland County DEC, along with Mr. O'Donnell. It was very difficult to bring businesses to Cortland County. We had an opportunity several years ago to bring a Wal-Mart distribution center to the Preble area; that was turned down. I think Walmart decided to go to the Utica area, so that's where they are now. Aldi's was interested in Cortland County but because of a lot of issues they moved to the Tully area. As was pointed out tonight, you never know what you're gonna get on a piece of property. People in Preble, when I was on the BDC with Mr. O'Donald we had a feed mill that was interested in coming into the Preble area. It would have been great for the corn burning that the young gentleman spoke about tonight because they were looking for five products to be grown in the Cortland area and they would have developed those products at that feed mill. The feed mill was turned down and now there's a thousand cow dairy farm there which has that enormous of manure that could be a polluting factor. But, also, I think that the presentation from Walmart's people last night, or the engineering and architectural presentation to me showed that they're willing to work with the community to develop a friendly, environmentally safe project and I think that's important. I think they could be the example for Cortland County for what type of projects we want to have in Cortland County, whether it in be in Virgil or Cortlandville. The mitigating factors that they're willing to take on cost a lot of money. I think it would be great if we could all get together as a group of Cortland County citizens and go right from here all the way down to the entrance and exit of Route 81 in Homer and go back to all those projects that are sitting there as a lit fuse right now with parking lots and development that could be polluting the aquifer. Maybe we can take a look at what Walmart is proposing and use that as an example and enact some kind of legislation that we could go back and check those parking areas and make sure that they're, you know, protecting the environment, protecting the aquifer. I think that, you know, the social economic issues are very -- they're very important and we have to be careful that we don't get into the haves and have-not issue. I think the property is there. It's property that there's a demand to be developed and I think that they're working in the best possible way to do it in a reasonable and responsible fashion. There's three B's in public speaking. The three B's of public speaking are be sincere, be brief and be seated. Thank you very much. ATTORNEY FOLMER: Christyann Maxfield. 79 MARCH 02, 2006 PUBLIC HEARING— DRAFT EIS PAGE 18 CHRISTYANN MAXFIELD: Good evening. Usually I am brief, but tonight I have a lot to say and I don't know if I'll say it all. Some of you think you know me, but you don't -- maybe don't know who my relatives and my neighbors were. I -- I'm a home owner now in Cortland, but my house could go on the market tomorrow. I've enjoyed shopping at Walmart, but I've lived in a low income most of my life and most of Walmart shoppers are low income people. I don't belittle Walmart's merchandise like some of the people I know. I know there's high -quality stuff to be bought there because people around the world don't make junk and people -- the shoppers -- people keep coming back to Walmart. I have a lot of friends and relatives and neighbors in the many places that I have lived. I grew up on a farm off of Route 222 and some of you know my father whose name was Milt Rank and my grandfather whose name was Wanger Rank. Some of you my grandfather was a dairy farmer. My father was a farmer, also. I worked all my childhood doing unpaid child slave labor on the farm. I pitched hay bails. I hooked tobacco all summer. I went to college on the earnings from the farm. That was my pay. I hoped that getting a college education would give me enough income to shop in high - quality stores. But all my life I've only been able to shop in places like Walmart. Now I can't even afford to shop in Walmart. I don't have enough income -- I might have to leave Cortland County and go somewhere else. But there's always Walmarts. I hear that Walmarts are located about every 20 miles. We know there's another Walmart 20-some miles down the road in Ithaca. I wonder if we should ask Ithaca how that Walmart is fairing in their merchandise and their sales and their return to the community. I -- some of you know me as a bitchy woman;.. others of you know me as a liberal agitator and someone who goes to protest in Washington, DC. Most of you don't know that I grew up in a republican family. I'm registered republican, then I registered Democrat. Now I'm not registered in either of those parties. I am thoroughly disgusted. I would like to go shopping somewhere where I have a choice, and in Cortland, there are many choices. There are car dealers; there are florists; there are several good quality drug stores; but I think there's some fundamental issues here that are happening not only in Cortland but all across the nation and all around the world. I am concerned about human rights and Walmart does not have a good record with human rights. And I think the people who make Walmart merchandise outside of the USA have a right to have their human rights respected every bit as the local human rights of the employees of Walmart. I know about sweat shops because I once with my home economics degree worked cutting fabric for minimum wage in a fabric store. I know about working off the clock, as I understand some employees of Walmart do because Walmart does not pay overtime. After I left my minimum wage in a fabric store job, I went home and worked more and long hours at home off the clock making merchandise that they could hang up in the store to entice more sales. The fabric store I worked in was local -- or was a family -owned business; it even had a Christian logo on its label. But somehow the way employees were treated was not Christian. Our sales were down because there was the competition from Walmart nearby; eventually that store folded and closed and left that city. This is a systemic worldwide issue, this issue of economics. We know that farmers all over the nation can't make it. We know that people working minimum wage can't make it. These are systemic issues that need to be addressed. Now, I like to have choice, so I can stay home and I can shop through the internet or through my phone, before it's cut off, from catalogues that sell a hundred percent cotton sheets. I can go to the local farmer's market and I can buy beautiful beeswax candles from the honey dealers who live here locally. I know personally some high school kids who have traveled around the world and have visited places that manufacture clothing for stores like Walmart and other stores and they have talked to these garment workers and they have found out some horrendous conditions, working conditions. I listened with my own ears to garment workers from Bangladesh who visited our local college. Now, my father and many of the people in my family were teachers. I think people — I have respect for people who get an education and who go to local colleges. Some people from Bangladesh came to our local college and talked about what it was like to be a garment worker in Bangladesh working to make a deadline in order to make an item that sold for 1999 here. They were paid, maybe, 25 cents for that same item and that we also learned that item came from the shore of the United States being listed as worth $3. So there was a big gap between $3 when it arrived in the port of the United States and when it got to the store in the United States and sold for 19.99 and the worker who made that item made, maybe, 25 cents. That is the story of stores 0 MARCH 02, 2006 PUBLIC HEARING — DRAFT EIS PAGE 19 like Walmart. And- all over this world workers, who are making the products, are not getting what they're worth -- what their worth is worth. Somebody else is making the profits. Now, I have new idea. I'm just not up here to bitch and complain. I think we could do something differently here. I was part of the cream of the crop for my local high school. High school teachers told me that. I was part of the national honor society. I got a bachelor's degree in home economics. I got a master's degree in theology. I worked on a farm. I've lived in a city. I've worked low wages all my life because I'm not willing to make the sacrifices to have a high -wage job. I think there needs to be quality wage jobs and quality lifestyles for people to live in this world and I think it's possible. I have been part of local -- locally owned cooperatives. I was a customer at a credit union where the banker, like Ann Baldwin, people know her integrity. I'm glad to find a credit union in Cortland. I think we could take the concept of cooperative ownership where people share in profits and apply it to big superstores, that we could create our own Walmart with local ownership, with local skills and talents, local business people, local bankers and we would all be a better community for it. ; Now, if we don't want to profit as local people, if we don't want to share in the wealth, we can give all our profits just to one family, the Walton family, and I understand they're the richest people in the world and probably that's because they have stores every 20 miles. But you walk into a Walmart store here or down the road 20 miles, it's just about the same kind of merchandise. Why would anybody want to come to Cortland to shop for the same kind of merchandise they could get in their own home backyard? I'm an artist, but Walmart won't sell my product, my artwork, so my family won't profit. But neither will the artist profit whose work is sold in Walmart. The Walton family will profit. If we had our own superstore for those people who like superstores who don't like to go to the source where things are produced, we could have local artwork, local woodwork, local text tiles; we could have the whole gamut of merchandise. And if we couldn't get it made locally, we could shop elsewhere in New York State or elsewhere in the United States or elsewhere in the world, but makesure that the people who are producing the goods or getting paid fairly for their labor. I think -- I grew up in a country that cared about people, that believed in democracy, believed in people having their say. And yet, there's so much work to be do -- to be done in this country if we're going to really keep that kind of country. The gap between the rich and the poor is widening and I am slipping further and further from middle class. I'm in poverty now and I need a job in order to stay anywhere in the United States and I actually ;think of leaving the country unless things change or unless I'm with a group of people who are willing to make things change. Thank you. SUPERVISOR TUPPER: Let's adjourn. We were not planning on doing a Friday session. Why don't we go ahead and recess until 5:00 tomorrow night and we may not be able to get this facility. We haven't verified that. If not, we'll have to go to the town hall which is a lot smaller than this. We'll adjourn this until 5:00 tomorrow night, 5 to 7. (Proceeding adjourned at 6:58 p.m.) CERTIFTCATION I, JENNIFER A. GOFKOWSKI, Court Reporter and Notary Public in and for the State of New York, DO HEREBY CERTIFY that I attended the foregoing proceedings, took stenographic notes of the same and that the foregoing is a true and correct copy of same and the whole thereof. JENNIFER A. GOFKOWSKI Res p ctfully submitted, Karen Q. Snyder, RMC Town Clerk Town of Cortlandville 1 1