It was standing-room-only to hear Greenport Mayor David Kappel speak about positive changes in his village. He was the guest of the Main Street Association at a meeting held March 3 at the Doubleday Babcock Senior Center. The evening was sponsored by the Rauch Foundation.

After he spoke, some listeners asked if he had suggestions for Oyster Bay but Mr. Kappel said he didn't know enough about the area to make comments, he was just there to show how he affected his community. Attorney Ed Mohlenhoff, a former MSA board member saw a message for the community in the talk. He said later, "I liked what Mr. Kappel had to say. I really loved that the more inclusive you were of the general population in planning the restoration project, the better the whole plan operated. The entire message of what he had to say was - if you are inclusive and include everyone it works out to be the right plan."

Mr. Kappel told his story of looking at his village when the economy was depressed and real estate taxes were sending people out of the village. The real estate business, his business, was standing still. He hoped what was good for his family would be good for the village, as he determined to run for the office of mayor.

Looking at his historic village he saw there was a lack of cultural and recreational opportunities for the kids, but that on the positive side, the village had a great history with its water-based industries of whaling, ship building, fishing and oystering as well as being a terminus for the LIRR.

When he took over as mayor he saw one of the problems the village faced was a police force out of control. The village board abolished the police knowing that the Village of Southold would have to take up the slack. One million dollars in expenses were cut from the village budget of $2. Cutting the police from the budget resulted in 70 percent lower taxes and then the board voted to return their surplus to taxpayers, a good vote-getting move, he said.

His next battle was over a vote for a pension fund for volunteer firemen. It resulted in what Newsday called a "bitter feud." The firefighters came and threw firecrackers and rocks at his house. They yelled obscenities that Mr. Kappel said were a testimony to the fact that there was no respect on the part of the police or the fire department for the authority of the village board of trustees.

Ten years later, he said things have turned around.

Mr. Kappel showed a slide of the Greenport waterfront with its docks including the famous Claudio's restaurant. At one time Navy ships were built on the Mitchell site, which created for a while, a boom economy for the village. There was a proposal to create a convention center and condos on the waterfront but he realized that would stop public access to the waterfront. He determined the village would buy the area and create a public park with public access.

"Timing is everything," said the mayor. As they were considering their waterfront plans, Grumman was purchased by Northrup and the Calverton site was being closed, and the carousel needed a new location. The village asked for the carousel and Northrup-Grumman gave it to them. Now in place at the waterfront park, last year it generated $130,000 in revenues, at a dollar a ride, he said.

To plan the marine area, they held an international design competition to create a waterfront vision. It was an incredible success. They received 500 submissions from 26 countries. They set up all the entries at the American Legion Hall and had a group of professionals judge the work.

At that time, he came to a major low point in his career. "As a mayor you get a lot of credit and while you deserve some of it - you don't deserve all of it. I had not realized I had lost the support of the village board. The villagers' vote restored majority control for me and the board. I would try to avoid this happening again," he said. The success of the work was a result of collaboration.

The next hurdle was getting the needed $20 million for the capital project from a pool of 2,100 working families, he said. It wouldn't have been possible if not for the state, federal and county governments, as well as the departments of NYS Parks, Recreation and Historic Places, the DOS and the DEC. They gave $12 million to make it happen, he said. "We had to find the other $8 million." They extended the water system and sewer system to outside the incorporated village to raise revenues. They erected a 350 ft. Sprint cell tower resulting in $250,000 a year. They built a power generator for LIPA and charged them $350,000 rent. They raised the money without raising taxes, he said.

The mayor went to speak to the elementary school kids on how village laws were created. When he saw he was losing his audience, he changed tactics and asked the children, "What can we do for you?" They spent the rest of the day listening, and the children, aged 11 to 12 years old, all asked for a bowling alley, swimming pool, skate park and an ice rink. "We looked at each other and said, 'what's wrong with that?' We had $3.5 million left and it was a once in a lifetime chance to gamble on the kids. We built a skate park for $300,000. Our feeling was, give the kids a stake in the process. For us it was families first. Our commitment was focused on how you treat the children. The children bring the parents," he said.

Today they have on the waterfront, a skate park, a camera obscura building [once inside you see a 360-degree panorama of what is outside,] there is an indoor pool at the YMCA and they have the carousel.

He said success is a double edged-sword, it can be a threat to the working class people of the community. The solution, he believed, was affordable housing. They revised their zoning in the village and now any house can be zoned two-family. People can convert their homes to become income producing.

Currently he is trying to expand the boundaries of the village into Southold with denser zoning than the current two acre zoning. "The big problem on Long Island is the exodus of young people. I'm lucky to have the house I've got. My kids can't buy a house here," he said.

The first question was about the liability insurance for the skate park. Mr. Kappel said it was everybody's first question. The village told their first insurance carrier, if they didn't insure the skate park they would go out to bid again. After two years they omitted the skate park, and the village went out to bid and saved $50,000 on premiums and saved the skate park.

He said the question wasn't only about the skate park being a liability where someone can be hurt, but that it was a constructive activity in lieu of the kids skate boarding off the steps of village hall and other places in the village. "The kids were waxing the curbs in the municipal parking lots and skating into the streets. It was dangerous. The skate park is better than the harassment between the kids and the police when things go wrong." He said it also resulted in less vandalism and a better feeling from the kids toward their village.

Marie Knight, president of the Oyster Bay Civic Association and an MSA board member asked if there was a difference between being an incorporated or an unincorporated village, in getting things changed around.

Mr. Kappel said being incorporated is a major tool for Greenport but the issue of friction between the village and the town can be worse with incorporation. "You have an automatic landlord/tenant relationship which can be adversarial."

Ms. Knight said, "We can't get things done."

Mr. Kappel said, "Incorporation can be expensive. There are unanticipated effects, including and excluding people [when the lines are drawn]."

He said Oyster Bay was off to a good start. "You have three board members here. You just have to organize and have a vision of what you want."

Ms. Knight said, "The re-assessment of the village of Oyster Bay has changed the preception of incorporation as worthwhile, now it seems a hindrance." [Cove Neck Mayor Tom Zoller appeared before the town board on Feb. 24 as they were approving fire protection contracts on their agenda. Mr. Zoller said as a result of the reassessment by Nassau County, Cove Neck is being heavily impacted. Fire protection contracts are based on assessments and the hamlet's assessment has gone down. The result is that Cove Neck was paying $100,000 for fire protection and is now paying $140,000. "That's a lot in the middle of a tax year," he said. He asked the town board if they would talk to the two fire departments about merging. Oyster Bay has two fire companies, the Atlantic Steamer Fire Company and Oyster Bay Fire Co. No. 1. The two work together on fires, with the chiefs alternating on who is in charge.]

But, Mr. Kappel agreed, "Taxes are a major issue."

MSA board member David Lamb asked about the international design competition process. Mr. Kappel said they used a board of professionals to judge the contest. They looked at all of them and picked the winner. Their decision was controversial and to solve the dilemma the village appointed a very large committee of 50 people in the community. [Again it was the concept of getting everyone involved.] "They jumped on the third prize winner." He said, in spite of the glitch, he would do it the same way again. "The design competition was to reach out for new ideas. We were paralyzed by our own thinking. We wanted objective thinking," said Mr. Kappel.

Architect Ellen Roché, a MSA board member asked what the public reaction was to the new utility plants they put up for LIPA. He said since they have their own generator already and were proud of it, that feeling accrued to the new project. They used municipal land for the site and he said, "You literally can't hear it when you are next to it. The emissions are controlled."

In response to Joan Mahon's comment on bringing in boaters, Mr. Kappel said part of his project is a floating dock marina for transients. It can hold 61 slips and none can stay longer than one week. There is no parking for the boaters in Greenport - they must arrive by water, he said.

Bill Sheeline asked, "Can you overshoot the mark in restoring the village? We want to diversify, not swamp the town."

Mr. Kappel said that was a hot issue. There is a balancing act to maintain between having people come into town as day trippers and using the village as a second home - and having a stable year-round population that patronizes the small businesses that make for a thriving downtown. He said when someone comes in to town hall they try to help them, permits take about two weeks. [That created a stir as people reacted to the amount of time it takes in Oyster Bay.] "Oyster Bay is a real gutsy place, be careful not to lose it," he said.

Mr. Kappel said their work was centered on the thought, "back to the future." He said Mitchells was a famous destination for boaters. "This is a historic village that was lost. The better road to the future is a reprint from the past," he said.

He said one of the things that brought out the biggest opposition wasn't the cell phone tower or the marina, it was two-family housing. He said they had one of their most productive meetings where they sought a balance of opinions between the beneficiaries as well as those opposed. At the end, the consensus was that it was the right thing to do.

He said, "Every community has an identity, what shaped it," and added they kept their emphasis on the children. He offered that Oyster Bay has Theodore Roosevelt, a very powerful image to be built on. "Identity is key - and how to use that," he said.

Tom Reardon asked for the economics of the marine park. The mayor said the upkeep is offset by revenues: the carousel at $1 a ride made $130,000; the ice rink is self-sustaining and the marina costs $100,000 which is paid by the users. The marina offers rest rooms and showers and office space and is run by the private sector.

As the meeting ended, Bill Sheeline, MSA vice president said, this process will lead to having a better village. He added that "MSA has a great relationship with the other groups in town. We are just getting everyone on the same page."