SL has long had financial concerns over police 'overtime' or whether to even have a police department. Having a Wal-Mart is likely to result in a need for more police officers, especially if the store is allowed to stay opened 24 hrs a day. Epping, NH had that specific problem.
Pineville, NC seems to have the same problem.
Pineville is one of a growing number of towns that have added large retail
stores in recent years only to find that the stores do not generate enough
tax revenue to cover their impact on public services, particularly police
costs.
And in West Sadsbury, Pennsylvania:
We saw a significant increase in crime and incident calls for service from the day Wal-Mart opened,'' as the anchor store in a new development in 2002, he said. Crime jumped 55 percent from the year before Wal-Mart opened to 2003, while calls for service increased 57 percent from 2002 to 2003, he said.
These are towns the size of Saranac Lake or smaller. Will police costs rise in SL if a Wal-Mart locates here? Maybe it would be best to try and determine if that will be the case or not.
Read a summary here.
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