So, Codger, as the oldest and least qualified candidate, exactly why are you running for office?
For the money. The big increase coming for Town Council members sure beats what I get here, which is in the mid-two figures.
There must be more than that.
Well, yeah, but I don’t want to come off sounding like a Miss America contestant calling for world peace. Like everybody, I want a better future for the Island, especially drinkable water and new houses that don’t look like medical centers.
What about affordable housing?
What’s affordable mean? We already have a waiting list of people who can afford the $1,025,00 median price of homes on the Island, and all you need to do is to get a hotel or restaurant job and you qualify for staff housing. Or you can pick your materials out of the dump and build your own house.
I think you’re being unnecessarily provocative.
To whom? My fellow candidate Tom Cronin says his favorite movie is “Brigadoon,” about a fantastical village that appears only once every 100 years. That’s how lots of people think about Shelter Island. Or it’s a musical by Lisa Shaw, another fellow candidate. For some residents, it may be a place that exists only when they step off the ferry, but for me it’s a real place with real problems that need real professionals to help Citizen Politicians solve them.
Now I think you’re being offensive, Codger.
I’m just getting started. Let’s talk about progress. Those $1,000 rooms at the Pridwin. Consider the trickle-down to all those people who will now be spreading the bread at Ace Hardware and the Islander. You think? At least it won’t be trickling down into our contaminated wells. What do we want? A total tourist island, the full-time residents playing friendly natives for local color? Our children could meet the ferries, bearing welcome shells and brochures for restaurants.
Calm down. Let’s move on. Do you think there have been unnecessary alarms raised about our water supply?
I’m alarmed. Nitrates, nitrites, whatever, I don’t want ‘em. I get the sense that some people are raising alarms to scare us off Suffolk County Water Authority and others want us to give it all up to SCWA. Or depend on Citizen Science. I’d rather take a chance on Christian Science. Actually, a good hydrologist working for a town planner makes the most sense. Why are we against bringing in people who know what they’re doing?
That costs money. From taxpayers.
So be it. But it might be a lot cheaper to identify problems, especially infrastructure problems, early in the long run. I think the real issue may be something Gordon Gooding — yet another fellow candidate — said at the League of Women Voters forum last week. He said the Town Council has to get “out of the spell of the last administration.”
What did he mean?
Who knows, maybe it was Arnott speaking, but I think he was referring to the good old boys who’ve been running the town, more or less. And it’s worked out, more or less. But things have changed. Different big money has moved in. The lack of transparency particularly has made it hard to actually see how Town Hall business is being conducted.
Do you have a plan, Codger?
I have a dream. I’d like to condemn the wasteland in the middle of town, the dust bowl I call Death Valley, raze the sad little stores and create a fine new public center, including a Town Hall, police station, and various municipal offices. Someday, maybe we could add a community center with a pool, and a two-story residential building, First Responder Gardens, with subsidized housing for people we want to live here, like firefighters and EMTs. It would be a water district, and SCWA could operate it after our pro planners created a contract beneficial to the town.
Now that sounds a little brigadoonish.
Sure, but everything else is “Beetlejuice.” It’s hard to understand how the Perlman Music Program, one of the best things that has ever come to the Island, is getting a hard time in its attempt to renovate and improve, while so much attention is being paid to Fresh Pond, mostly a pool for a dozen homeowners. I love Fresh Pond. Crone and I courted in its waters last century. But we’re not paying attention to our priorities. Another reason for outside professional help.
But where is the money for all this coming from?
Take a boat ride around the Island. You’ll see where the money is. A smart new administration can figure out how to tap into it without giving the Island away.
You expect to be part of that smart new administration?
I’ll be waiting close to the road.
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