Public Outrage over Amazon Grows

By Joshua Walther

SCHOHARIE - At the Schoharie Planning Board’s latest meeting on Tuesday, local residents showed up in droves to protest the arrival of Amazon’s warehouse on Route 30A, formerly the Highbridge site.

Despite the Amazon team presenting noise, traffic, and drainage studies that showed either potential improvement or mitigated damage, the residents refuted them, believing their lived experiences over the engineers’ numbers.

“I invite any of you to come to my house at 1 AM,” said a resident that lives adjacent to the plot in question. “It is quiet. The highway is quiet. But this facility is going to be open twenty four hours.”

Another resident attested to the wildlife that lives on or near the plot, having brought maps of eagle nesting areas.

“There’s a nest right across the road from this project,” she said. “If you bring all of these trucks in and build them, they’re going to be scared off and never come back. It’s going to be even worse with deer. We already have problems with cars running into them, imagine what it’s going to be like with this.”

Amazon’s team tried to quell the outrage by saying that they’ve walked the site extensively with an environmental biologist and found zero impact, yet the residents took their word with a grain of salt.

Another resident, having recently moved into Schoharie, was shocked by the scale of the warehouse. “I moved here from Bethlehem to get away from the traffic, and now this is going to completely turn that around.”

Finally, another resident pointed out that Amazon may not care about the community, but rather its own interests, saying “I’ve been sitting here all night, and I think this thing is completely absurd. Schoharie doesn’t benefit from this. The workers don’t benefit from this. The only people who benefit are the higher ups at Amazon.”

Once everyone in the audience had been heard, the Board reminded all those listening that this isn’t to grant a brand-new special use permit, but rather amend the one the site currently has for what Amazon wishes to do.

“We have metrics and standards that we must grade this on,” said Town Attorney Dave Brennan. “This Board already granted Highbridge approval from their numbers that they showed us. We cannot look at these new numbers that show improvement and say they’re now improper.”

Board member Dawn Johnson backed this sentiment, explaining that it’s not about how the Board feels, but rather about the legality of what Amazon is asking for.

Nevertheless, the Board noted that they took everyone’s comments into consideration, and invited more input for their public hearing on September 16th.