That crash was a life out of balance
On the Money
By Sue Miller

A while back I devoted a column to the subject of time management - the need to balance home and work and everything else that turns us into bundles of nerves unable to sleep even when we're dead tired because our brains won't stop rehashing everything we should have done differently and planning everything we need to do next.

I still haven't baked Christmas cookies with my kids, for Pete's sake (and I'm not talking about Christmas 1998, either).

At the end of that column, I asked for tips from readers who have managed to manage their time in a way conducive to productivity and mental health. Most of you evidently were too busy to respond, too baffled by the pace of your own lives whizzing by to do more than offer hasty commiseration while pushing past with your shopping cart or cheering on your son at a basketball game before racing out to deliver your daughter to gymnastics.

One response I did get has been haunting me of late.

"The first thing to realize is that this so-called 'balance' doesn't really exist," said Jim Hinsch, a local chiropractor and a pretty relaxed-sounding guy.

He went on to relate the anecdote about the man who makes his living giving seminars on how to keep life in balance. While he's out on the road preaching his gospel, his wife is back home filing for divorce.

Life is "like the plate-spinner on the 'Ed Sullivan Show,' " Dr. Hinsch said. "It took energy to get the plates going, but once they were going he just gave them a spin occasionally when they got wobbly."

According to him, "everyone has eight to 12 plates spinning. You just need to watch which ones are wobbling and go back and give them a spin."

Not the fine china, please...

Kind of a squeaky-wheel, don't-fix-what-ain't-broke philosophy. I liked the sound of it at first, and was prepared to see which of my own plates needed a spin and which could be ignored a while longer. Then it hit me: If balance doesn't really exist, wouldn't all those plates fall to the floor?

Just then I heard a horrible crashing sound. While I'd been pondering, my plates had been wobbling. With no one to give them a spin, they toppled and cracked. Apparently, there's such a thing as too many plates.

Which is all just a metaphorical way of saying I won't be writing my column for a while - probably not till Memorial Day, anyway - because I can't keep all these plates spinning.

Too much work, not enough time, yada yada yada. Same old '90s story. Suffice it to say that columnist, special projects editor, acting co-publisher, acting sales manager, newspaper designer, mother, launderer, cook, wife, shopper, housekeeper (don't you dare laugh, Jeff Miller) and occasional martini drinker are more hats than my little head can hold.

When my busiest season passes - with the publication of our Home & Garden supplement, spring Wine Press, summer Tanger Times, North Fork Vacation Guide and Shelter Island Vacation Guide - I'll be back, like it or not.

Some parting thoughts:

Caldor may not have been the best-run chain in the world, but it sure knows how to throw a going-out-of-business sale. There's not much left, but there were true bargains to be found Saturday. I may have gone a little overboard on the greeting cards (if you get a "Happy Third Tuesday of the Month" card in the mail you'll understand), but at 70 percent off - plus buy five, get five free - who could resist?

The Riverhead store closes this Sunday and will morph into a Wal-Mart sometime thereafter. That ought to pressure Kmart into becoming more consumer-friendly and help displaced Caldor workers find jobs.

Richard Bliss, manager of Caldor's Sight & Sound department, was hoping to keep his team intact at another store; maybe now he'll be able to. He invited me to the Riverhead store for "an inside view of what really goes on in retail" after reading my generally unflattering column about Caldor last month. The timing didn't work out for a tour, but he did enlighten me on the subject of personnel - as in, why it's getting more difficult to find personable, polite people to fill jobs that involve dealing with the public.

In a word, his answer was this: fear. The fear of being sued or accused of wrongdoing leads to favorable or, at worst, tepid reports when a prospective employer calls a previous or current employer about a job applicant.

"The worst possible thing you could say about somebody is that they're not rehirable," Mr. Bliss explained.

In the weeks since, I've heard and read about this disturbing trend toward refusing to give any information about an employee except the workplace equivalent of name, rank and serial number. Consequently, bad apples keep getting passed on to other stores and manage to remain in retail.

On that note ... See you in a couple months. In the meantime, do your taxes, contribute to your 401(k) and other retirement accounts, invest wisely, shop locally - and give those wobbly plates a spin every now and then.

William Talmage and Kenneth Bakst claim the grandifolia sandhills is a "hoax" and a "fairy tale." However, their own Traditional Links draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) states, "The American beech is the most abundant species present." The scientific name for American beech is Fagus grandifolia. The DEIS also states, "The subject parcel contains soils representative of coastal bluffs, sand hills and outwash plains." The Soil Conservation Service's Suffolk County soil survey maps for the Traditional Links site indicate areas of duneland on the property. The rarity of the grandifolia sandhills is confirmed in the definition of dunelands in the soil survey text: " Also included are a few small, blown-out areas along the north shore. In these places dunes have migrated into the woodland surrounding the blowout." The New York State Natural Heritage Program has determined that virtually the entire woodlands of the Traditional Links site contain globally and state rare natural communities as well as the globally and state rare natural communities as well as the globally rare dwarf beech forest on the bluffs. The Natural Heritage Program has also used the term, grandifolia sandhills, in context with the Traditional Links/Friar's Head Farm site.

Clearly, the grandifolia sandhills is neither a hoax nor a fairy tale. On the contrary, the term, grandifolia sandhills, is an accurate description of the natural wonder Traditional Links proposes to destroy.

All three development proposals set forth in the Traditional Links DEIS are unreasonable and would completely fragment the grandifolia sandhills ecosystem. The DEIS ridiculously devotes nearly all of its over 1,000 pages to promoting Plan A, the 451-acre full-blown golf resort with 500-unit hotel, two golf courses, and 25 luxury houses. Simply stated, the Town of Riverhead cannot approve Plan A unless Suffolk County agrees to release the 101 acres south of Sound Avenue from the Farmland Preservation Program. The DEIS does not address the impacts such a horrendous, precedent-setting decision would have on the entire Farmland Preservation Program. Also, hotels are not allowed, even by special permit, in the Recreational District. Plan B, the 350-acre, 369-unit residential/golf alternative, which requires a discretionary zone change from the town, overestimates the number of housing units allowable and would fragment the grandifolia sandhills even more than Plan A. Plan C, the 350-acre so-called as of right 525 housing unit (738 with transfer of development rights) alternative would completely obliterate the grandifolia sandhills, have severe impacts on the school district and is nothing more than a scare tactic.

Notwithstanding Mr. Talmage's and Mr. Bakst's protestations that the Traditional Links property is not for sale, the preservation alternative is the only reasonable alternative in the DEIS. Millions of dollars are available from state, county, and local programs for open space and farmland preservation. The Traditional Links site qualifies for inclusion in these programs. There also is growing interest in the public acquisition of this property among a number of influential public officials. Yet, the DEIS summarily brushes off public acquisition as unlikely.

Dru Associates Inc., author of the Traditional Links DEIS, claims that the site is severely disturbed and environmentally worthless. The DEIS is in direct conflict with the pre-existing public record established by George Bartunek. In a memo to the town dated July 10, 1989, Mr. Bartunek, as chairman of Riverhead's Conservation Advisory Council, stated, " the area may be so unique and may serve as such a valuable open space and wildlife habitat that its preservation should be our primary objective." One of Long Island's most knowledgeable naturalists, John Turner of the New York State Water Resource Commission, has stated that there are a multitude of errors, omissions and contradictions throughout the DEIS. In Mr. Turner's judgment, " The DEIS should never have been accepted by the Town Planning Department as complete "

North Fork Environmental Council and a growing coalition of environmental organizations believe the Traditional Links site's natural areas and prime farmland are priceless. To their credit, the Talmage family, past and present generations, has been a good steward of the land. The site's natural areas are pristine. According to Eric Lamont, Ph.D., a widely respected published botanist and president of the Long Island Botanical Society, many rare plant species and obligate wetland species exist there. The site provides essential habitat for a wide variety of wildlife including endangered, threatened, and special concern species such as sharp-shinned hawk, Cooper's hawk, common tern, ruby-throated hummingbird and other neotropical migratory birds, smooth green snake and long-tailed weasel. We also believe saving all of Riverhead's remaining farmland, including Friar's Head Farm, is vital to the continued viability of Riverhead's agricultural industry and to keeping Suffolk County as the most productive agricultural area in New York State. Public acquisition and preservation of Traditional Links' 350 acres north of Sound Avenue should be fully explored and a fair price negotiated with the landowners.

Charles Cetas is a vice president of the North Fork Environmental Council.