MADAKET CONUNDRUM
BY DANIEL W. DRAKE ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
Shortly after the dawn broke this morning, I saw a red tail hawk come gracefully swooping through the shadows and alight on the clothesline post. I watched out the window for a few minutes as the bird sat there preening, but keeping a watchful eye out for breakfast. The bird looked at me through the window and I heard a low-throated call: "Open the window!"

Zipping up my fleece, I cracked the window and said "Good morning, Hawkeye. I am glad you are here. I had a late night last night and need a little inspiration."

"Good morning to you, too. It's not like you to go out carousing. What's the deal?"

"Carousing hardly describes what we did. We attended the Planning Board meeting last night. The sports club proposed for the site of the Westender was up for discussion. We sat through three-and-one-half hours of discussion and hearings on various topics, including the proposed dewatering system for the construction of the proposed 'Phase II' of the Point Breeze."

"I don't really care about that," Hawkeye snorted. "I hardly ever go downtown. There is too much congestion. Between the crows, the pigeons and the seagulls, the traffic is fierce, even in the off-season."

"Tell me," he then asked, "do they play the national anthem at the beginning of these meetings?

"No," I replied. "Why do you ask?"

"Well," Hawkeye responded. "Our anthem opens every meeting of our governing council. It brings a tone of civility to the proceedings. After all, we are a pretty fractious bunch."

"Perhaps it would help. Our boards are pretty fractious, too. But, I didn't know you had any kind of organization of hawks," I said.

"Fortunately, we meet very rarely. We only get together when there is a big issue. I think the last time we met was in 2005 to discuss the possibility of an override to balance the association's budget. But it turned out to be a false alarm. It seems that the treasurer had some money squirreled away - I use the term advisedly - so the budget crisis was averted."

"Pray tell, what is your association's anthem?" I asked. I should have known better.

"What do you think?" Hawkeye snorted. "'Red Tails in the Sunset'"

"Ouch" I said.

Hawkeye snickered. "So what happened last night in the discussion about the club?"

"After a lot of talk from the proponent on all the benefits the club would bring to the Madaket community as well as Nantucket's school kids; from the neighbors about all the evils it would bring to the Madaket community; from the board mostly about parking and water issues and from a group of five or six young men from around the island who offered their support for the club as the one organization they thought they could belong to on Nantucket, the proponents were sent off to refine their proposal and come back to the next meeting. Actually, it was a very good discussion."

"Do you have an opinion?" Hawkeye asked. "I do," I said, "but I would rather hear yours." "I don't know a lot about these things," Hawkeye answered thoughtfully, "but I find it hard to believe that a facility of this type will have any real appeal in this location."

"I think you are right," I said, "but that is the proponent's problem. The question is whether this is a benign use or one that will have a significant impact on its surroundings and, if it will, can it be justified?"

"I have to say," Hawkeye replied, "I am not enamored by the thought that some of these folks will find their way out here during the various hunting seasons. I hope they get some training about what kinds of birds they are allowed to shoot."

"You have a point," I said. "And where are they going to find hunting fields for the deer they plan to dress at the club? The spots out at this end of the island are pretty well taken in the sense that people already have been hunting year after year, for a long time. It could get a bit messy. And where are they going to go fishing? Millie's bridge?"

"It sounds to me like you have made up your mind," Hawkeye threw out.

"No, I haven't," I continued. "I am not viscerally opposed to a club on the site. My guess is that the parking issue is a bit overblown. I don't know enough about the water questions to know whether a facility using up to 1,700 gallons a day might contribute to the inflow of salt water to neighboring wells (although one way to gauge that is whether the problem got better or worse or didn't change during this past summer when the restaurant was not in operation). I don't think it is going to have any more impact on traffic or on quality of life issues than the restaurant had.

"What the club proposal doesn't do," I went on, "is provide any real community benefit. There will be no restaurant or market for Madaket. It doesn't solve the problem of providing food or restroom facilities for Madaket beach users - although there was some discussion last night of the club possibly providing both. But overarching everything is the economics - the high cost of the land and buildings - which makes most commercial use options for the property untenable."

"Do you see a solution?" Hawkeye asked.

"If it is on a scale in keeping with the neighborhood with some community benefit such as a daytime take-out facility, public restrooms and an adequate NRTA stop (with a bench), then the club should be allowed to go forward. Of course everyone will have a different idea of what the appropriate scale is and what the benefits should be, but, ultimately, it is the Planning Board's role to work that out."

As Hawkeye readied for take off, he said, "I have another idea. How about incorporating a casino instead of the bowling alleys? Then the town could get some continuing revenue from the project. That's a community benefit."

"That brings a whole new meaning to the term 'fish and chips,'" I said, as I shut the window.

The "Lighthouse Keeper" reflects the views of the author and does not represent the editorial position of The Nantucket Independent. Please send any ideas or comments to drake@nantucketindependent. com.