Another island resident came to my home to ask if I would serve on the Community Center committee. He said the committee had been working on the project for a coupla years but was not making much progress. I had heard about the committee and that its vision of a center included a swimming pool. Although I thought that was a mistake, I agreed to attend the next committee meeting.
At the meeting I kept my mouth shut and listened. I looked at a layout of the future building's interior and found most of it was devoted to a pool. There was not much else. The committee's chair was Edie Konesnie, the sharp PA who ran the town health center. I called Edie up after the meeting and asked if I could see her.
At our meeting, I expressed my concern that the committee's focus was too narrow, that a pool was not needed as much as other facilities and that it was also very expensive to construct and maintain. I asked if they had considered an existing structure, and then asked her if she knew that the Gilder property was for sale.
She answered in the affirmative. She added that she had even placed a call to Dick in New York but he had not returned it. I said I knew a bit about him, that he owned a small brokerage firm, and said I believed he might respond favorably to a business-like presentation – one which she and I could make. We went to work and in two weeks were on an elevator riding up to his Columbus Circle office. The presentation was well received and ended with Dick agreeing to donate the entire property. Unbelievable!
The Gilder property – everybody on the island knew it. It was some twenty acres located up island, on the water, with a handsome new barn. Dick Gilder was a well-to-do Dark Harbor area resident whose former wife had loved horses. Dick bought the magnificent piece of property for her and built a handsome horse barn up on the hill by the road. The barn provided a commanding 180 degree vista of fields and the ocean. Below the barn, where the land leveled out, he had constructed a full dressage arena. It alone must have cost a fortune. I am told that the island trucker who brought the requisite stone, gravel and sand in from the mainland could retire from the income received from those hundreds of truckloads.
I didn't think the town needed dressage, but the large ring could serve as a wonderful ice skating rink. Adjacent to it I could see a soccer and base ball field and a challenging cross country course. I also envisioned a walking trail and nature trail through the fields and adjacent woods.
The barn itself was almost new. It had an insulated cathedral ceiling except for the south end which was two storied. Very large horse stalls along the east wall with wide doorways opening onto a wide patio on which I could imagine tables and chairs where people could dine and relax, enjoying the spectacular view.
I used a computer to design a possible center's interior. There was lots of space to meet many needs. I drew in a boy and girl scouts' room, an arts and crafts center, a psycho-therapy room with private outside entrance, etc. A Center director and assistant could live in the upstairs rooms on the south end. Along the northeast wall I created a gym with space for a good number of machines. As they rode the exercycles, etc., occupants would have a view to die for! There was even a room for large meetings and celebrations. Edie and I also worked on Center operating costs. We came up with what we felt was a realistic and affordable staffing plan and budget.
Concurrent with our work on the Gilder property, we invited new people to join the center committee. New member Ed Girvin met with a contractor from the mainland who estimated necessary changes would cost under $250,000. However Ed did worry a bit about the high-ceilinged structure being possibly expensive to heat in the winter. New member Dudley Ladd seemed miffed that this Gilder idea was not his. He voiced various minor objections. But other committee members got busy. We got publicity: an article about the Gilder gift appeared in the paper. A request for volunteers to man the Center was circulated and over eighty people signed up to serve. We were moving, momentum was mounting.
But Dudley was still determined to sink the Gilder Center, the name we had given it, for it wasn't his idea. He told Ed privately, that he felt the Center's fund raising campaign, now almost past the planning stage, would fail because of lack of support from the affluent Dark Harbor crowd, of which he was a member. He said that before they would support it, these folks had to physically see it, and on a regular basis. If a center were located near or in the center of town, these people couldn't help but see it when they went in to buy groceries or visit the post office. But he said they would rarely have cause to drive five miles up island, past the Gilder barn.
So one day, out of the blue, Ed announced to the committee he was now opposed to the Gilder location, and used Dudley's argument. I was stunned! How could anyone in their right mind turn down this incredible gift? Surely its fabulous site and building would prove attractive to all potential donors, including Dark Harbor folks! And so much had already been accomplished to make it come alive! All the members knew where Edie's and my hearts were, but no one had the courage to fight Ed and Dudley.
The Gilder Center project went out to pasture, and coincidentally, it wasn't long before I left the island to seek greener pastures of my own.
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