The Stern Great Room was filled wall to wall on Thursday, Jan. 30 when the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues hosted “Carlisle’s Future: Balancing Environmental and Economic Concerns.” Additional co-sponsors were the Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce, League of Women Voters and the Carlisle YWCA.

At the event, several panelists discussed the environmental and economic effects of the regional warehouses and truck traffic on the community.

George Pomeroy, professor of Geography and Earth Science and the Director of the Center for Land Use at Shippensburg University, began the event by presenting aerial photos of the area surrounding several interstate exits in Cumberland County. One photo showed an aerial shot of an exit in the 1970’s, while the next shot showed a more recent Google Earth image with big white boxes, newly constructed warehouses, now covering what used to be empty land. The pictures demonstrated the increase of commercial buildings in the area, as well as the influx of truck traffic that come with the build up.

Kirk Stoner, the director of Planning for Cumberland County, enumerated three key points about the development of warehouse industry in and around Carlisle, and the necessary evils associated with it.

“We need warehouses and the benefits they bring to the community,” Stoner began. “They have to be somewhere. We need innovation to mitigate the impacts of the industry and diversify our economy, [and] we need planning to accommodate the industries and protect the environmental essentials.” The ‘environmental essentials’ referred to is the idea that the community should “protect the best and plan for the rest,” as Stoner said.

However, as far as the economic and environmental impacts to the area are concerned, the next panelist, Nathan Wolf, a partner of the local law firm Wolf & Wolf, made a much more concerned presentation. Wolf stated that the warehouses being built in the area lack economic diversity.

“Look at Pittsburgh, Detroit, Silicon Valley. These are just a few areas that were deteriorated due to change in industry,” he said. Wolf also presented facts about the air quality in Cumberland County, pointing to a list of rankings put out by the American Lung Association, which gave the area a grade of ‘F’ based on a 24-hour particle pollutant sample. He told the audience that the air in Carlisle has PM10 particles, which carry with them thirty known carcinogens.

After the presentations, a panel discussion was opened. Community members were frustrated by the fact that the addition of warehouses is still an ongoing battle and used the opportunity to voice their frustration.

Even after the panel concluded, those in attendance still had a lot to say.

“I realize that it is a problem between environmental and economic. You could sense the energy in the room. It disgusted me that the people in the room aren’t being represented,” said Kelly Archer ’17.

“I think it is very important to make students aware of these issues for the environment they are living in for four years,” Gisela Roethke, a retired Dickinson professor and community member said. “It’s a very unhealthy environment.”