| Issue #33, November 10, 2006 |
Contemplation Park
Where a Man in a Loincloth Strikes A Gong at Sunrise
By Dan Rattiner
For at least two generations, the people of Montauk have lusted mightily for a big parcel of land on Fort Pond Bay in that town. Montauk has beautiful ocean beaches, a fishing village, the classic old lighthouse, a ranch with horses and cattle and even a pond in the center of town where they rent sailboats and paddleboats. But then there was the isolated western end of Fort Pond Bay, a place of sunsets, a calm arc of a beach on a bay and a view of Connecticut. And there was nothing out that way that the public could use — although there was at one end a vast former seaplane base used by the Navy during the Second World War and then abandoned.
Jay Schneiderman, who is now a member of the county legislature, grew up in Montauk as the son of a couple of schoolteachers who owned and rented out “The Breakers” cabins on the Old Montauk Highway. He too, had, at one time, been out to the abandoned seaplane hangers on the Bay. And he did not forget the place ten years ago when he got elected as Supervisor of East Hampton Town. It took awhile, but the Town purchased that property — we’re talking about 22.4 acres on the beach — and then it took down all the old structures, literally plowed the property into a beautiful level stretch of lawn with the arc of a beach at one end, built a 100 foot long wooden dock at one end of the beach, and then held a big party out there, which I went to, to introduce the populace to what he had done.
“What do you plan to do out here?” people asked him.
“Don’t know,” he said. “We’ll see.” He really didn’t know. Navy Road Park had been created as a blank slate. Montaukers could do with it what they will.
But what has happened out there during this past decade is, well, nothing. To get to the park, you have to drive down a gravel road of some ancient vintage that veers off Industrial Road, crossing the railroad tracks at a particularly awkward place, and then drive out Navy Road about a mile and a half. With so many other things to do in town, very few people seemed to get around to going out there.
And so it has happened that, by default, the Navy Road Park has become a place where you can go for, well, nothing. You can drive out there and sit. You can go out there another day and sit again. It’s nice.
Into this picture some years ago there came the Vincent Colaio family. New Yorkers who had made good, they bought property on a hill overlooking the vast lawn of Navy Road Park and the Bay, and they built a vacation home on it. They stared out at the view for a while, and then it occurred to them that they were looking out at not much going on. Nobody docked at the pier. Nothing was going on on the lawn. There were boats that came by in Fort Pond Bay but they were far, far away.
And so they contacted the Town — Schneiderman was elected to the County Legislature by this time — and they offered to donate $100,000 if the Town would build a children’s playground at one corner of the park. It would be in honor of three of their family members who had lost their lives during 9/11. Sons Steven Colaio and Mark Colaio, along with Mark Colaio’s brother-in-law, Tom Pedicini, all worked at Cantor Fitzgerald on September 11, 2001. It would put some life in the park, and the kids would love it.
As it has turned out, however, the community of Montauk decided it would not love it. They surely appreciated the thought, but a majority of the people in town, when told about the project — which was moving along with the playground equipment purchased and the parking area and other facilities designed — spoke against it at Town Meetings. The objection? Too far away from civilization. And an intrusion that would bring lots of noise and running around to a peaceful place. The Town reversed course and scrapped the project last week.
All this seems to come under the heading of “there’s no accounting for taste.” I recall years ago a woman staying oceanfront at the Royale Atlantic Motel, waking the management at two in the morning to complain that the ocean noise was too loud and could they do something about it. Real Estate people tell me that if you live next to a school and put your house up for sale, all the kids playing in the fields reduces the value of your property. On the other hand, I know people who buy houses next to schools because they LOVE the sound of kids playing soccer or on a playground. What can you do.
The Calaio’s have declined to donate the $100,000 unless the town proceeds with the playground equipment where they wanted to have it placed, and so the town has had a conversation with the Montauk school district, which is just about to order a new group of playground gyms and slides and so forth and they will take this equipment which is already ordered instead.
As for me, I suggest that we build a little hut out at Navy Road Park and next to it a big bronze gong supended between two telephone poles. Every morning, exactly at sunrise, we have a man in a loincloth come out of the hut and hit the gong with a giant mallet. Then he returns to the hut. He repeats this at sunset. And that’s it.
I know. Well, it’s just an idea.
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