Exasperation exuded from the standing-room only Town of Oyster Bay Board Room on June 24, as Farmingdale residents weighed in one final time on the potential Stop & Shop construction on the northwest corner of the Liberty Site.

The heavily scrutinized Liberty Site is a United States Environmental Protection Agency Superfund property that the Town of Oyster Bay made a priority to improve several years ago.

"Now we're down to the final piece of the puzzle," Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto told an audience of both supporters and opponents of the project. "Tonight is a resolution to finally make an informed decision on this property."

The Stop & Shop project has been controversial since its proposal back in 2004. Since then, various parties such as the Concerned Citizen Association of Farmingdale, the Citizens for a New Liberty and the Town Board have all held meetings to discuss these concerns before a final decision was put in place.

Prior to the meeting, Stop & Shop agreed not to operate a 24-hour store and pledged that delivery routes would be directed around, not within, residential areas. After conducting several traffic studies, Stop & Shop also planned to finance improvements for the surrounding roads.

This final vote was rescheduled from 10 a.m. on June 24 until 7 p.m. that evening to accommodate residents.

Supporters of the Stop & Shop project were offered coach bus travel accommodations to the meeting and green pins bearing a supporting message, courtesy of Stop & Shop's public relations firm.

At the meeting, attendees reiterated both approval and contempt for the project in anticipation of the town's decision. Fifteen speakers from both sides addressed Supervisor Venditto, Councilman Delligatti, Councilman Muscarella, Councilman Macagnone, Councilwoman Walker and Councilwoman Faughnan, in front of a mixed crowd of residents, town employees, union representatives and Stop & Shop executives.

In their presentations, supporters stressed that a supermarket is a necessary addition to the area, that this state of the art food store would create additional employment opportunities and also would generate a significant tax revenue of about $500,000.

Opponents of the Stop & Shop construction countered that such a project would endanger the character of the community, that there are more productive alternative projects for the site, such as housing, office space, or a cultural center, that the town has not yet explored and that traffic and safety concerns have not yet been settled.

A group of these opponents formed a community-based planning effort called "Discover Farmingdale," during which they partnered with NYIT's Urban Planning Program to create an alternative vision for the site, which they felt the board did not adequately review.

Others criticized the town board for scheduling this meeting on the night of Farmingdale High School's graduation, where a lot of speculative residents potentially were instead of at the meeting.

Although both groups were allowed to speak, Venditto stressed that this was not a hearing but a vote, and that a final decision would be determined that night following the presentations.

Venditto also had to call the room to order numerous times, as presentations were continually interrupted.

Keith Scalia, a resident part of the "Discover Farmingdale" team adverse to the Stop & Shop, felt that the town simply has turned a deaf ear to them. "This is a prime opportunity for the town to take care of the future generations of residents and they are letting us down," Scalia commented.

"We absolutely need this food store and the town has absolutely handled the situation well," remarked Trudy Flesher, one of the senior citizens bussed to the meeting.

Following hours of spirited and exhausting debate, the town board unanimously adopted the resolution to build the Stop & Shop in Farmingdale, a project that will take ten months to complete and will commence soon.