A half-dozen Jefferson residents, convinced that Dollar General has no place in their community, held a protest Thursday at the site of the proposed small box store.
Opponents to the project, which would be located at the Route 10, Peck Street, and North Harpersfield intersection, are also collecting names on a petition that they plan to present to the town board.
The proposed project would be built on three properties; one is residential and would require a use variance from the Planning Board, changing it to commercial.
Holding signs that read “Keep Jefferson Beautiful,” “Keep Jefferson Historic No Dollar General,” and “Just Say No to Dollar General,” the group received mostly honks and thumbs-up shows of support from drivers passing by.
But one man in a pickup rolled down his window to say he’d heard that if the Dollar General doesn’t go through, there are plans for a liquor store at the site.
“What would you rather have, a Dollar General or a liquor store?” he asked. “I’d rather have a Dollar General. So protest all you want.”
Gail Rentsch, one of those at the protest, said her biggest fear is that Dollar General’s growth—there’s a store in Stamford and others going up in Grand Gorge, Worcester, and Richmondville—is unsustainable.
“What’s going to happen when this store fails and we’re left with a concrete building and an empty parking lot at the edge of our historic district?”
Ms. Rentsch also pointed out that Jefferson’s old-time village square is something that makes it unique and likely to bring in more second home owners or people looking to work from home now that Jefferson will have broadband internet access within the year.
“But are those people going to move in if the first thing they see is a Dollar General?” she asked. “They’re not even going to give us a look.”
Barb Palmer, one of those who helped organize the protest, said she’s concerned about the wetlands behind and downhill from the proposed store.
“It’s not just an area that gets wet when it rains,” she said. “It’s an actual pond. And it’s all across the road from the cemetery. That doesn’t seem an appropriate place for something like this.”
Especially, she said, when when all of the surrounding buildings are historic—at least 50 years old and some more than 150 years old.
Ms. Palmer and others are also concerned about the impact the store would have on the E&P Corner Stop convenience store directly across the street.
“They pay local taxes and hire locally,” she said. “What’s going to happen when they can’t survive and there’s an empty store on the corner? What is that going to do for our town?”
Other concerns include tractor-trailer traffic and lighting.
It will be up to Jefferson’s Planning Board to decide whether to grant the use variance for the project.
Public hearings will be held on the proposal and Planning Board Chairman Bob Glas said they’ll also consider the town’s Comprehensive Plan, which stressed the community’s rural nature, and the project’s environmental impact.