Future Walmart Controversy Sheds Light on Abuse of Power

It could have been much worse, a parking lot packed with consumer cars collapsing onto the road below. Instead the expected site of a Walmart Supercenter in Kilbuck Township dumped 300,000 cubic yards of soil onto Interstate 65 and the Norfolk Southern railway tracks below. Now, residents are not only saying I told you so, but that they believe the township bent rules for the corporate megamart and a lucrative side deal.

On September 19th 22,000 motorists on their way to and from Pittsburgh found out their commute would be a lot longer with tons of dirt and debris blocking the highway. The River Pointe site, home of the former Dixmont State Hospital, was being excavated to create a plateau for Walmart's newest store when the hillside collapsed. Luckily no one was injured; however, local businesses would suffer major losses while the road remained closed for the next two weeks.

Embroiled in controversy since the project began in 2004, residents fought tooth and nail to keep the store out of their town. It wasn't a debate over commercialism or urban sprawl but rather the safety of the site chosen. Residents even took the developer to court, but only now are the intricate details surrounding the web of deceit and conflict of interest is being disclosed.

According to news reports, not only were ordinances waived by Kilbuck Township supervisors that required "benching," the construction of step-like intermediate areas to reduce the possibility of a slide, but money passed through an interesting number of hands.

Widmer Engineering Inc. is Kilbuck's engineering firm, they get paid $25,000 to make decisions for the township. However, in 2001 ASC Development hired Widmer Engineering to conduct a traffic study that would pave the way for the Walmart project and in 2002 Engineer Marie Hartman approved changes to the township's grading ordinance that allowed ASC Development to start working on the Supercenter. The move essentially allowed Widmer to represent both the needs of the town and the developer while ignoring township ordinances.

However, all of the unscrupulous deals don't take into account that back in April after blasting at the site caused a rockslide the highway below was closed for about 24 hours. Back then the Department of Environmental Protection forced changes in how blasting at the site was conducted, but apparently it wasn't enough to prevent the current situation.

In typical fashion, now that details are slowly coming to light regarding abuse of power and conflict of interest surrounding the project no national or state agency wants to be connected to the future Walmart or admit they had any supervision responsibilities, leaving Kilbuck Township out in the cold and residents red hot mad.

Finally, after two weeks the road has been mostly cleared. But will the project go forward? The DEP has suspended a permit for soil and erosion control that it issued back in 2004, but the suspension probably won't last now that the roadway is partially cleared.

And regarding those Kilbuck officials who sought to profit from the development, Kilbuck Secretary James Pool says the supervisors may issue a group statement sometime this week. The next regularly scheduled meeting of the supervisors is Oct. 17, and no special sessions are planned.