Wal-Mart closer to finishing plans for store

By RODNEY MINOR, The Leader-Herald
GLOVERSVILLE — Close may count in horseshoes, but not in draft environmental impact statements.

Wal-Mart, which wants to build a supercenter at South Kingsboro Avenue Extension, resubmitted its environmental statement to the city Planning Board this week.

Planning Board Chairman Renato Sanges, who characterized the statement as 95 percent complete, said at a meeting Tuesday an intersection design that the board wanted to see was not done correctly.

The Hales Mills Road/County Road 128 intersection with Route 30A would shift farther to the north in the design the board wanted to see. Hales Mills Road would continue west in the design, crossing Route 30A, where it would connect with South Kingsboro Avenue.

The design submitted by Wal-Mart engineers is close to what’s at the intersection now, Sanges said.

Kim Thompson, the project coordinator, said the new design should be available to the board members in time for its next meeting June 3.

Sanges said it’s possible the board could deem the environmental impact statement complete at the June 3 meeting and schedule a public comment period for the project.

Fulton County Senior Planner Sean Geraghty, who advises the board, said the comment period would last for at least 30 days. A public hearing is typically conducted during that time.

When all the comments on the environmental statement are made, Wal-Mart must answer the questions.

The Planning Board then can decide whether the questions have been answered and accept the finished statement, Geraghty said. When that’s done, the other agencies involved in the project can begin their work.

“[The board] has not reviewed the site plan itself yet,” Geraghty said. “They will eventually have to approve that.”

More than 40 people appeared at Tuesday’s meeting. Many wore green stickers labeled, “Wal*Mart YES.”

After their presentation, the people working on the Wal-Mart project received a round of applause from the crowd.

Martha Curtin was wearing a green sticker. She said the meeting was positive, although she would have liked to have seen the board agree the environmental statement was complete.

“I think the city in general is open to the Wal-Mart supercenter,” Curtin said. “It represents progress.”

In January 2007, Wal-Mart unveiled its plans for the 186,979-square-foot supercenter. The project would involve the creation of 890 parking spaces, the extension of municipal water and sewer services, construction of storm-water infrastructure and a wetlands mitigation area.

The Wal-Mart on Fifth Avenue Extension in the town of Johnstown would close when the new store opens. The supercenter would employ about 200 people, almost twice the number now at the Johnstown store.

City officials have said the supercenter would bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales tax revenue.

Wal-Mart could break ground in October, said Mayor Tim Hughes. The company has not given a target date for opening the store.