Dan's Papers - March 7, 2008 - A Plan for Shelter Island

A group called the Safe Harbor Retreat LLC has an option to lease the Ram's Head Inn on Shelter Island and turn it into a drug and alcohol rehab center for 162 "clients" (They refer to it as client occupancy levels. 56 in the first year, 162 in the second, and more than 162 as they expand after that.)

The founder of the proposed retreat, Joseph McKinsey, has invited interested parties, including residents of Shelter Island, to a meeting at the Ram's Head on March 15 at 4 p.m. to discuss the matter.

In the invitation to the meeting, McKinsey reassured Shelter Islanders that residents will be given preferred treatment at the new retreat.

The addiction retreat, as proposed, together with its staff of doctors, nurses, keepers and treatment experts, will add a total number of new people to the Island that will increase the current population by a signigicant amount. With its focus on medical matters and addictions, it will have a significant impact on how the Island is perceived and how it perceives itself.

I think this is worth examining. It is a matter of context. This tight little island, accessible only by ferry, currently does not have much of a context at all. It has a summer colony of about 300 homes owned by very rich people who enjoy seclusion. It has a year-round population of about 1,100, who are mostly blue-collar workers, fishermen, house watchers, bar owners, bed and breakfast owners and others who enjoy seclusion. There is really no commercial downtown. There are a few stores, both on the Main Street where the school, churches and town hall are, and up near North Ferry at the Heights.

There are plenty of drug rehab facilities elsewhere. The largest drug rehab center in the area is Seafield in Westhampton, which has 90 beds.

The important thing is, however, that in Westhampton as in most other parts of the country, there IS a context, that is to say - there is a wide range of facilities among which Seafield is just one. Within ten miles of Westhampton there is a prison, a fishing fleet, an air rescue airport, a Coast Guard station, numerous beach resorts, a performing arts center, a hospital, subsidized housing, numerous downtowns, etc. About 60,000 people live within ten miles of Seafields. Here on Shelter Island, there are the summer people, the local people, some fishing, a bunch of bars and bed and breakfast places, two hotels and two golf courses. Recent additions have been a horse ranch and a classical music camp. Rehab center does not roll off the tongue after horse ranch and music camp.

In McKinsey's brochure, he describes how the day begins with yoga, how there is lots of one-on-one and group activities and how no alcohol or drugs will be tolerated. There will be no Medicare or medical cards accepted, which will mean that he doesn't need a license from the State of New York to run this facility as a public intake. The cost of a stay at Safe Harbor will be about $35,000 a month.

He tries in his brochure to define some of the upsides of having this facility on the Island. Regarding the Ram's Head Inn, he describes it as a sort of out of control party hotel with thousands of people carousing on the lawns, something that will be happily put a stop to by the re-creation of the place as Safe Harbor Retreat at Shelter Island.

The Ram's Head Inn has just 22 rooms with accommodations for 44 people. It is the center of activities for the social set, where weddings, coming out parties, cotillions and bar mitzvahs have been held since 1924. The Inn currently hosts about ten weddings a year on the property.

According to James and Linda Eklund, who will retain ownership of the property, there will certainly be no new buildings constructed on the property without their approval. Would it have a fence around it? It is illegal to fence a rehab. People can't legally be held in a rehab facility. The clients would be free to walk off or bike off or row off. Though, by rehab rules, they are "discharged" and not welcomed back if they walk off.

Of course, there is an upside. And it is money. This facility, if it succeeds in what it says it will do, will bring into Shelter Island probably 30 jobs as cooks, security people, janitors, waiters and attendants. It will probably gross about $10 million a year, some of which will surely stick to the outstretched hands of the Islanders.

What you won't get, and this is in this literature sent out, is paparazzi and TV interview trailers, signs, promotional activities, helicopters circling about high overhead, signs and swooning crowds of people waiting to get a glimpse of the likes of Lindsey Lohan and Britney Spears. The Safe Harbor Retreat won't permit it. (How about that!)

I think it will come down to this - if you like Shelter Island the way it is and want to keep it going in that direction, you'll oppose this. If you have a fear of the unknown, you will oppose this. If you like money and feel the inrush of year-round money will shine the place up and send it off into a better direction, you will be in favor of it.