Disagrees with permanent solution
for the Whalerock controversy
EDITORS NOTE: this letter to the editor arrived in an email from John Van
Slyke, Jr. of Arnolda. Mr. Van Slyke makes some points that will come up
during discussion of a possible town purchase of the Whalerock land. The
regular authors of this website have stated their positions and more articles
on the pros and cons will be published if a referendum on the purchase is held.
To whom it may concern;
Please stop advocating for the town
to purchase the Whale Rock property from Mr. LeBlanc. There is no reason
why the town should even consider the idea of buying the site of Whale Rock for
at least the following reasons.
Mr. LeBlanc purchased this parcel of
land in a private transaction for his own business reasons and purposes.
He is an entrepreneur, and he is the sole risk taker. In our
system, entrepreneurship is rewarded. One who puts up equity capital in a
project assumes all of the business risk and he or she is entitled to keep all
of profits. That is the way our capitalist system works.
However, the reality of the market
changed dramatically in October, 2007 which was the beginning of the Bush
recession and the start of the great market crash of 2007 and early 2008.
Mr. LeBlanc was not alone in getting caught in the down draft.
Thanks to Wall Street, the world financial system was nearly destroyed.
The US was plunged into the greatest economic downturn since the Great
Depression.
That was clearly unfortunate for Mr.
LeBlanc, but that is his problem as an entrepreneur, not the Town of
Charlestown.
Of course, any entrepreneur can make
appeals to others, but no one has an obligation to step in and bail an
entrepreneur out. The only way out is to restructure the financing of the
project. When a recapitalization must be done under duress or pressure,
the result is invariably a reduction in valuation of equity and serious
dilution for owners and shareholders. The golden rule applies. He
who has the gold rules. There is absolutely nothing new here.
In short, for whatever reasons, it
appears that Mr. LeBlanc made what may turn out to be a money losing decision,
and he was not helped by external events in the US economy. There is no
evidence I am aware of that anyone forced Mr LeBlanc to make his decision to
buy the Whale Rock parcel.
People make decisions to take risks
only to have these risks become realities. This happens all the time in
our country and even our local area. Anyone who has ever paid too much
for something is intimately familiar with the problem Mr. LeBlanc may or may
not have at this time.
However, no one, least of all the
Town of Charlestown, is obliged buy out Mr. LeBlanc. No way.
The only Issue is whether it would
it be in the Town's interest to do so. My answer is no.
I have looked at the site plan for
the Whale Rock parcel. I have read and studied the Town's master land use
plan. I also have driven up the roads around the Whale Rock site. I
cannot see how this piece of ground has any municipal or recreational use. We
already have outstanding facilities at Ninigrett Park, and the Town owns land
adjacent to that site. The higher and better use of scarce money from the
Town would be to make improvements to Ninigret Park, the Town dock and so on.
Finally, I also have a real problem,
emphasis added, with anyone using what amounts to scare tactics about the
Indians and a casino project as has been said repeatedly with respect to the
Whale Rock site. Such statements have racist overtones and they are way,
way out of line.
Once again, Mr. LeBlanc is the
entrepreneur. He owns the risk and he is entitled to the rewards from
whatever he can do with this venture. Whatever happens is a private matter for
Mr. LeBlanc, not a public matter for the Town of Charlestown. No way.