by Thaddeus Flint
This past week has been a troubling one for the concerned people of New Lebanon who have been struggling diligently these last fifteen months to lead their town out of the desert. Desert, in this case, not meaning a place of sand and camels, but “food desert,” a term somebody somewhere coined to aptly describe an all too common phenomenon these days in the United States – towns with little or no access to fresh healthy food such as fruit and vegetables. New Lebanon found itself listed among the great American food deserts of Detroit, Memphis and Newark when the New Lebanon Supermarket closed in December of 2009.
And yet the situation was not hopeless. Hope had, in fact, recently been close on the horizon. Hannaford Supermarkets announced in November of 2010 that they had signed a lease with the owners of the Valley Plaza Shopping Center. But then that hope was dashed. At a March 16 meeting of the New Lebanon Planning Board Hannaford announced it might have to pull out.
DOT Demands
The bad news was delivered by Hannaford’s Senior Project Engineer, J.M. Lord. Hannaford had wanted to move forward, but the New York State Department of Transportation stood in their way. Lord outlined the demands of the NYSDOT, which included widening of sidewalks, moving of telephone poles and even donations of land. How could Hannaford donate land they were only leasing? The NYSDOT plan had also proposed eliminating all the existing entrances and exits to the Valley Plaza Shopping Center and creating one single entrance and exit onto their road, Routes 20 and 22. Their roads. What many in Lebanon see as their Main Street, a piece of road that the Town of Lebanon plans to one day make more pedestrian friendly with trees and grass and parking. The NYSDOT has in the past often made it clear that the road is theirs. To some residents of New Lebanon, this came as no surprise. The NYSDOT is often seen as an adversary when it comes to planning and beautifying the Town. Past projects have fostered these feeling in residents, explained Fiona Lally of the Lebanon Valley Business Association, such as the widening of Route 20 and requiring the newly renovated Lebanon Library to display some eight different signs explaining how to take a turn into the Library. Maybe the NYSDOT thinks readers don’t make good drivers? “It’s nothing but another example of how the Department of Transportation has not listened to arguments from the Town at all,” said Lally. “The people of New Lebanon just don’t trust the DOT.”
Apparently Hannaford is now thinking of pulling out. The current demands of the NYSDOT would most likely be a “deal breaker,” said Lord. So is the deal really broken? Is New Lebanon to remain a food desert until perhaps another supermarket can be persuaded to come in, to build, to fight the DOT?
Region 8 NYSDOT Public Information Officer Melissa Slater seemed surprised at the situation in her telephone message of March 29. “At this time we are working with local officials,” said Slater, “we didn’t know about any issues with what we suggested until we saw the newspaper.” This was apparently referring to the coverage of this subject by The Chatham Courier. Did Lord of Hannaford not voice his concerns to the NYSDOT? Were the DOT’s demands really just suggestions as Slater said? At this time we don’t know. Lord did not respond by press time to messages left for him asking for further clarification, and Slater’s message needs further clarification as well.
What we do know for sure is that the Town of New Lebanon isn’t giving up without a fight. Town Supervisor Margaret Robertson and Deputy Supervisor Douglas Clark are working to set up a meeting which would help clarify the situation, one at which the NYSDOT, Hannaford, the Town of Lebanon and perhaps even NY State Assemblyman Steven McLaughlin and NY State Senator Stephen Saland, would attend. Tentatively this would occur in early April.
In the meantime the Lebanon Valley Business Association is working hard to keep residents informed and involved. Within days of Hannaford’s announcement they had set up a web site called Save Our Supermarket (www.saveoursupermarket.com) which outlines the state of affairs and lists updates of information. The site encourages residents to contact their elected officials. A sample letter has been posted to make doing so much easier. Yesterday signs appeared in front of the New Lebanon Off Track Betting building, the proposed site of the Hannaford store. SOS, they read, Save Our Supermarket! “I sure hope they stay here!” said Lally. The Town must now wait and see.