"I started coming here to visit with my grandmother when I was nine years old," she recalls. "We had a summer house here. My parents worked, so we came with my grandmother and we came for all the holidays too. And that's far too long ago now."

While she speaks, Kelly sits in the Dunkin' Donuts on Boniface Drive and Route 52, a site with overtones that vary from the ironic to the tragic for her.

"This was all part of our dairy farm," she explains, indicating Boniface Drive, the Hannafords, the Stewarts, and the Kelly Crawford Center up the road where the Cup & Saucer sits. "From Route 52 to 302 was our farm. We had 156 cows here. You can still see the barns, up at the top of the hill, and I still live in the house, which is past the barns."

If you ever wondered why it was the "Kelly" Crawford Center, now you know.

"We sold the farm in 1979 after my husband got sick. I became an assessor here in the Town of Crawford in 1980. I was Town Supervisor from 1990 to 92."

Does she miss the farm?

"I wish it was still a farm, but it couldn't be, because my husband became ill. So we had to sell it. As for the development here, I think the town wanted rateable businesses. I don't think that that should be the sole motive in town planning. Planning should follow the rules and regulations that you've adopted. You have to protect the rest of the people that are here."

Eileen Kelly has two primary concerns when it comes to her work on the Planning Board for the Town of Crawford — the master plan, and enforcement of zoning and planning laws and rules.

"The master plan was to preserve the rural character, maintain open space, and support the farms. And, unfortunately, I think that's slipping away really quickly. I'm not the guardian of the master plan. I think I'm the guardian of the idea that everyone has rights. The people who are already here have rights, as well as the people who are coming in. Now, everyone who pays taxes on their property feels they have rights. Some think they have the right to do whatever they like on their property, but they also have neighbors and their neighbors have rights. So I think we have to protect their rights too. If there's a development on a piece of property and it's not good for the neighbors, then it's not a good thing for the town. And we have to remember that new people may come in and pay taxes, but they also bring costs."

And then there's the matter of rateables, which town boards seek as an antidote to their financial woes. Kelly isn't totally convinced that massive commercial developments do actually benefit the towns they arise in.

"Take the town of Woodbury for example. Ask them if they really profit from the Woodbury Commons development. Sure, they get some taxes, but not that much, because I think it's an IDA [Industrial Development Agency] development, so there aren't the same property taxes on it. And the costs of roads and everything to service that development are huge. I think that development needs to be studied carefully, because if you make a mistake on something like that it can be very costly to the town."

The other big problem as she sees it lies in enforcement.

"We do not have enough power for enforcing our rules and laws," she explains. "In the Town of Crawford we have just the one building inspector to enforce restrictions. Now the building inspector we have is doing a good job, but one inspector and one clerk is not enough. We need a code enforcement officer, someone whose job is to enforce the laws and rules. As it is, people are getting the idea that they can do what they like and get away with it. Do we want that? Because if we let that happen the town could be ruined for everyone."

COMMENTS about this article (1)