Is There a Vision for East Hampton?
By Town Manager Jeffery J. O’Keefe
It seems that lately there is a great deal of discussion about a unified “vision” for the Town. When interviewed for the Town Manager’s job I spoke to the individual council members, department heads, town employees and community leaders directly about this vision.
Although there may be the absence of a specific vision or mission “statement” the vision for this Town does exist!
Not only was I able to realize this vision from the many folks I spoke to; I was also able to see tangible aspects of it in the several documents that do exist that deal with vision. The most up-to-date and thorough document that goes towards the Towns vision is the plan of conservation and development. Recently an implementation piece to this has been adopted. Those things in the plan, albeit slowly, are indeed moving forward.
You can also pick up pieces of “visions” for this town from the various commissions. The Lake Commissions vision is to fix the lake, not to mention fixing the watershed areas contributing to the Lake problems, both of which are missions of the plan of conservation and development, IWWA and clearly part of my vision as well.
Both the Redevelopment and Brownsfield commission(s) vision is to restore the Village Center, which is clearly one of the Towns and my vision as well. And, it is one of the reasons why I fully support the conversion of Center School into the new Town hall to spark economic development and help with this redevelopment effort. This too would create several hundred local jobs which are sorely needed. The revitalization of the Village Center is at the top of the list for the Economic Development commission as well.
There isn’t a person, politician, business leader or town employee who, when asked what the number one priority of the Town is, wouldn’t reply, “A municipal water system.” Collectively, and in collaboration there are many folks working really, really hard to make this happen and I am optimistic that one day (and not too far off) this will be realized.
Having now spent a very rainy fall season and a very cold, snowy winter to date (reminding me of my friends in California asking if I really knew what I was doing when I took this job) I’ve learned we have some very real and serious infrastructure needs (Culverts, Roads, Drainage, Runoff, etc) that need to be addressed. An all too close to home incident reminded me of this when I recently “slid” my way into the path of an oncoming snow plow. Through the grace of God I was not hurt. And, it did highlight directly how much work needs to be done to make our roads safer.
Having walked the hallways of ALL of our schools I can see how much work we have to do to bring these schools into 21st Century standards. The budget challenges our schools face with the many unfunded mandates make these challenges even more difficult.
There are quite a few additional things I could speak to, and I’m sure each of you could add a few of your own to the list. We could use more open space (though we do have quite a bit of it), more parks, more soccer fields and ball fields. And, I sure would like to see an indoor pool and racquetball court somewhere in East Hampton so that I wouldn’t have to drive so far away to access them. I’d like to see more programs that go toward developing a “healthier” attitude about job, stress, conflict and work life balances.
Yes, there may be many more pieces to the puzzle that are needed. A lot more discussion needs to occur about “smart” growth planning and development concepts. But these discussions are going on. Just ask the Planning and Zoning and Water Pollution Control Authority about some of the recent discussions they have been having.
So you see, we do have a collective vision, even though we may not all agree on it (which in all reality would probably never be the case) we are in fact moving in the direction of that vision. As an example, in the plan of conservation and development 50% of the community responded they would love to have their own golf course in Town somewhere; however, on the flip side 50% said they would not want a golf course. The question is: how do you reconcile this decisiveness?
Soon we will begin the “collective” process of developing that “one” unified vision statement for this Town. It will be a collective process and all that want to be involved may be involved…even starting today.
Until, we reach that collective statement, I will take a swing at it, so that you at least get a glimpse of what I have learned about and how I view this Town; it gives a little glimpse as to what my vision for it would be as well:
Welcome to East Hampton
“East Hampton is a community steeped in tradition and natural beauty; a community which values its natural resources and is committed to protecting them; a community dedicated to constant improvement of one’s quality of life, whether it be improving recreational opportunities, restoration of schools, the Lake or Village Center, the creation of a clean municipal water system, an improved network of roads, bridges and trails. East Hampton is a community that values progress; yet recognizes the importance of fiscal responsibility. East Hampton is the place where the “Bell” tolls on… its people are proud, we are committed, we are passionate and we love this Town!... This is our Town and we invite you in!
Now you take a stab at it! I’d love to hear your vision statement for this town. Send them to me at jokeefe@easthamptonct.org Please keep them positive and meaningful or don’t send it.
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