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Groups Against New Wal-Mart Hope Suspended Permit Becomes Revoked Permit

Cleanup Continues On Route 65

POSTED: 7:14 pm EDT September 23, 2006
UPDATED: 7:34 pm EDT September 23, 2006

Construction has stopped -- but the cleanup goes on.

Route 65 remained closed Saturday night, and contractors are keeping a close eye on the pending rain.

Permits to build that new Wal-Mart have been suspended, and now citizens' groups want the project shut down completely.

Channel Four Action News reported that frustrations have been mounting.

Opponents of the Wal-Mart construction project said they hope the suspended permit becomes a revoked permit.

They also said it's a shame that something like this had to happen before the governing agencies came to grips with their common sense.

The opponents of the Wal-Mart project in no way hoped for a disaster.

But when 50,000 tons of dirt crashed on route 65 it spoke volumes.

It sent a louder message than any opponent of the project could make-- so loud that the PennDOT and the Department of Environmental Protection were forced to suspend construction even after the cleanup.

Members of community first said revoking the license of ASC developers was the only solution.

"I would think that with the conditions that have changed, the agencies would have to be fully revoked and then submit more plans and it would have to start from the very beginning again," said Mary Louise Fowkes, a member of Communities First group that is against the new Wal-Mart.

Norfolk & Southern now has two of three tracks open.

But Route 65 is still clustered as crews remove 4,000 cubic square yards of dirt every eight hours.

Resentment will continue to brew unless the permit is fully revoked.

"PennDOT, the DEP and other government agencies are not the only one's to blame. Kilbuck township is to blame too because they changed some of their ordinances to make this fit," said Glenfield Borough Mayor Steve Zingerman.

"What’s going to happen two years from now when there is a building up there, there are people shopping, there are people parking. There’s going to be deaths. So what's the cost. Let’s build a Wal-Mart or do we keep people alive," said Glenfield resident Debbie Peace. "I think they knew what possibly what was going to happen but it got passed anyway."

"Right now it's not safe. It’s a safety issue right now. My mother is 80 years old. She was driving on the other side Monday night just before it happened. She could have been killed," said Peace.

Once the cleanup is complete, neither the DEP nor PennDOT can say how long it will take before this project can go ahead again.

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