Year: 2017

RICHARD SIEGEL

I am seeking a Board position because I would like to contribute to finding solutions for the numerous long and short-term challenges facing our community. As we begin to approach “build out” and sea level rise we will face critical infrastructure decisions that will affect all island property owners. At the same time, as some of our housing stock ages, we are likely to need mechanisms for dealing with homes and condos that have become neglected and uninhabitable. In the near term, as housing continues to be built, we are seeing a considerable loss of the habitat that our popular and precious wildlife require. Financial and community resources will need to be marshaled to help us deal with these and many other issues.

I spent the first part of my working life in retail management being involved in every bookkeeping aspect of the business including account payable and receivable, budgeting, payroll, purchasing and finance. When I switched careers to education I taught history for twelve years before I became a building administrator where I managed a large staff and worked to control expenses while maintaining high quality educational experiences for hundreds of kids.

In the two plus years that I have been a resident of Seabrook, moving from a condo to a house, I have been tremendously impressed with the community support and commitment that is demonstrated daily by the Seabrook family. As the coordinator of the Adopt-A-Highway Program that periodically cleans up a portion of Betsy Kerrison Parkway outside our gates I regularly have to put out calls for assistance. The response is always heartening. I have had the pleasure to serve on both the Environmental Committee and the Activities Committee and I am regularly reminded of the commitment of the committee members and the level of expertise they bring to their tasks. Groups like SINHG and the SI Birders have hundreds of members demonstrating the involvement of our residents.

Serving on a subcommittee of the Environmental Committee looking into wildlife habitat preservation and SIPOA landscaping practices around our lakes lagoons and marshes has been an enlightening experience for me. On the committee were numerous very knowledgeable volunteers who had been members and heads of groups like the Greenspace Conservancy, the Club, the SIPOA Board and the Environmental Committee. We searched through the ARC and DHEC regulations as well as soliciting opinions from a wide range of property owners and wildlife experts. Two things struck me. It became apparent to me how many very talented people live here and how many of them have given so freely of their time and energy over the years to make Seabrook what it is. Serving on that subcommittee also showed me the diversity of thought on what’s appropriate for the future development of our home. By serving on the Board I hope to help find ways to build a consensus for solutions that will be sustainable.

-Submitted by the Nominating Committee

PENNY LEE

My husband, Jim Brown, our 14-year-old daughter, Piper Brown, and I made Seabrook our home in August 2017. We’ve owned a home on Seabrook for the past 10 years that we visited as often as we could, and my husband and I have been vacationing on Seabrook since the 1980s. We’re avid tennis players and Jim and Piper also enjoy golf. We also enjoy family bike rides, the beach, and the equestrian center—our favorite part of the island. Somehow we also manage to find time to take Piper to Porter Gaud, where she’s a ninth grader. Piper’s on her school tennis team and jazz band, where she plays French horn, and she is a proud co-founder of her school’s Chinese Club. While we enjoyed living in New York, we deeply appreciate Seabrook’s natural environment and strong sense of community and we’re thrilled to finally be living here.

I recently retired from the New York City Department of City Planning, where I was the planner for Long Island City, Queens for 29 years. I worked closely with the local community and elected officials to initiate and direct public infrastructure projects, including the construction of a one-acre public park and wetland from land formerly used for public parking, as well as zoning changes that facilitated over 13,000 apartments and 3.5 million square feet of office space (but I don’t think we need that kind of density on Seabrook!).

I was fortunate to be able to combine my professional planning skills and love of Seabrook by serving on the Sense of Place Committee beginning in 2012, and then joining the Planning Committee after the Sense of Place project ended. In addition to collaborating closely with committee members and consultants on the Sense of Place final report, I’m proud to have worked with committee members and SIPOA leadership to establish a Style Guide for Seabrook’s streetscape elements including signs and screens. This effort resulted in the recent updating of all of the island’s street signs.

My familiarity with Seabrook’s governance and my planning skills will serve the island on issues such as resiliency and mobility that will continue to play a significant role in the island’s future. I’m also interested in working with the growing number of families with children who are making their home on Seabrook. As Piper would say, I will be as devoted to taking care of Seabrook as I am to taking care of her.

-Submitted by Nominating Committee