The Coral Gables Times

taxpayers' pride and joy

BY JULIAN P. BRODIE Aerial view from over Long Island Sound shows what Westporters now enjoy at their public country club. 1 Beach 2 Swimming pool 3 Wading pool 4 54 cabanas 5 Basin for 154 boats 6 18-hole golf course 7 Seven tennis courts 8 Tennis-pro shop 9 Softball diamond 10 Clubhouse with lounge, check room, card room, cocktail bar, offices, coffee shop, rest rooms, dining room, bedrooms 11 Golf Halfway House for refreshments 12 Woods with rental cottages 13 Lockers, golf-pro shop, snack bar, eating terrace, sun roof 14 Cafeteria at beach 15 Original parking space 16 New parking space 17 The Strip, for a future playground PHOTOGRAPH BY GEORGE H. CARDOZO stood there. And so were their houses. The third question I knew the audience was pondering was: "How can we pay for this?" I was ready with a properly endorsed plan for a $2,000,000 bond issue, repayable over 20 years. It would add to the town budget only $150,000 a year for interest and amortization. For a man with a $25,000 house this figured out to only $15 a year more in taxes. Others would pay proportionately. So much for the cost of acquisition. The operating expenses were another matter. We had guesstimated that the club would cost somewhat more than $200,000 a year to run. This included salaries, upkeep, repairs and supplies, utilities, and minor items. However, by our calculations, the income from the sale of family-admission windshield stickers, golf permits and greens fees, tennis permits and fees, rentals, income from restaurants and bars, and other sources, would probably fully pay these annual running expenses. ANYWAY, it was my belief and that of my committee that the town could well afford to treat itself to Longshore and could comfortably pay for it. I also pointed out that it was time that the Westport father got a break. He worked hard, sweated much, took a round trip of 100 miles a day for the privilege, and richly deserved a little golf or tennis if he could squeeze it in. After very few objections, the meeting, in solemn conclave assembled, voted 38 to 0 to buy Longshore. All of us took it as a great triumph and the pay-off of months of hard work. My wife and I had delayed leaving until that very night for a Caribbean vacation. We'd packed the car with our bags, hired an off-duty patrolman to drive us to the airport, kissed the family, put out the cat, and gone to the meeting. Accordingly, after the vote was announced and the entire assemblage rose to applaud its own magnificent decision, we strode up the aisle, through the lobby and into the car, whose door was being held by the cop. My work, though, was really just starting. Selectman Baldwin asked me to stay on and head up a committee to transform the club into a public park. Having already made so hefty an investment of hope and hard work, I agreed. In February, I set to work with my trusty executive committee (I called them my Longshoremen) and seven other committees we put together—43 dedicated specialists in all. According to the purchase terms, we weren't taking title till April 14th. What's more, we couldn't set foot on the property until we did take title. At the same time, I was most anxious that we not miss the beautiful spring and summer season, the best, of course, for a club park in our location. We set ourselves an opening date of May 20th, so we had about five weeks to do the job. In those five weeks we hired 34 people, wrote the public policies of the park, drafted all the regulations, set the admission and sports fees, and held public Continued on page 37 Suburbia Today, June 1962 11 cilities. We didn't have enough tennis courts; we had no public golf course, and in these and other ways the town fell below the standards of the National Recreation Association for communities of our size, to say nothing of our income level, which is high. This greatly surprised the audience. Like a lot of other suburbs in recent years, we'd been asleep while the town had grown. I also pointed out that shore-front land was arce and getting scarcer, that the town had sadly missed opportunities to buy a nine-hole golf club some years before and several tracts along the. water that had been gobbled up by developers. Furthermore, if Longshore were ever sold to a builder, we could expect a hundred or more houses to sprout there, with up to 250 children dumped on the town, bringing with them the need to build a new million-dollar school. In our town, moreover, any family (average 2.3 children) that lived in a house selling for less than $50,000 actually cost the town money in education, police, fire, and other services. Our God-given location on Long Island Sound, our excellent schools, beaches, boating facilities, and air-conditioned commuting all made our town almost too attractive to big-city immigrants. Unwittingly, they added a financial burden to the rest of us when they chose Westport. THE SECOND QUESTION I also phrased right out of their own thoughts: "Can the town afford this club?" My answer was that the town could not afford to pass it up. I singled out several prominent realtors in the audience. I asked them to tell the crowd what shore-front property was worth these days. By luck, one announced she had just sold a piece of land on the shore that week for $25,000. Another, who was then developing 26 acres of waterfront property, told the gasping populace he was getting $15,000 and $20,000 an acre. So I pointed out that even as a real-estate investment, the thing was cheap at the price. Moreover, it was getting more valuable every minute that I

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