After much talking in area streets, stores and municipal meetings, the Ellenville-Wawarsing Chamber of Commerce (EWCOC) announced it will hold a Wal-Mart forum from 6:30 pm to 8 pm on Wednesday, April 25. The meeting will take place in the Ellenville Elementary School auditorium.

Chamber President Holly Houghtaling explained the motivations behind the event, "We were approached by village and town officials to see if the chamber would consider organizing the event. We felt it was necessary to have something out in the open for the public to move forward."

Houghtaling wished to make it clear that the forum did not indicate that any deal had been reached between current owner Joe Tso and the retail giant. The meeting is meant to be a venue where community members on both sides of the issue can come together and share their concerns.

To avoid any one person or group from monopolizing the evening's events and to keep a civil tone to the forum, the Chamber has put a series of restrictions on the way the audience will ask its questions and how panelists will be allowed to respond.

The forum will consist of two panels with differing views on the "Wal-Mart issue". Each panel is tentatively scheduled to have three panelists. Each panelist will be provided five minutes to present his or her point of view. After that, the audience will be allowed to ask questions through the use of a paper and pencil that will be collected by the forum's moderator and read to the panel. At that point, each panelist will have a maximum of two minutes to answer each question.

Houghtaling urged the entire community to attend and also encouraged any concerned individuals that have difficulty reading or writing to bring another individual so that no one will be denied the opportunity to have his or her voice heard.

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