Now that Oyster Festival 2001 is over, it's time to evaluate what happened and start planning for 2002. The question is: whose job will it be?

The Oyster Bay Chamber of Commerce, which has run the event for 17 years, announced in February 2001 that they were putting the festival on hold so they could re-evaluate it for 2002. They will be re-evaluating that decision for festival 2002 when their next slate of officers takes office at the beginning of next year. What that decision will be is of great interest to the community.

The Oyster Bay Rotary responded to pleas from non-profits and merchants to continue the event this year - 2001.

Tom Reardon, a Rotarian, and a former Oyster Festival chair, took over the job of organizing the festival and working with a committee of volunteers, held weekly meetings, starting in April, to organize the event.

Assessing what happened, Tom Reardon said, "The Rotary showed it can handle the Oyster Festival. They showed it could be done. I don't think that the chamber has the manpower to run it.

"I think that the reason it worked so well is that the Rotary not only had Rotary members help but had a good cross section of other people from the community whereas the chamber was never ever able to generate that. I don't necessarily think the chamber would be able to generate it yet. If the chamber wanted to run it I don't think they would have the cross section of the community that Rotary had.

"Most people are saying to Rotary, 'Do it again because you did such a good job this year'," he said.

When asked if the fact that the festival was in jeopardy brought people out to support it, he agreed but added a spin. "There were people that outright said they wouldn't necessarily work for the chamber, that it didn't hold anything special for them.

"I think that the people don't hold the chamber out to be a not-for-profit but thought it was looking out for itself, and liked it better in the hands of Rotary. Whether or not the chamber could have done it, that we would never know," he said.

The chamber was supposed to be spending this year retrenching and trying to figure out how to do it, but Mr. Reardon said some of the things that happened were the same old battles, but there were other things to consider. "We were finding different people. The new blood, came to the front and said if we can't do it one way, let's do it another way. There were fresh new ideas from the new people involved. The chamber didn't do a lot of things wrong. As a matter of fact, the chamber notes and things were outstanding. They really were; if we wanted to know something all we had to do was look at their notes. It was handy and could be found rather quickly.

"At this point and at the point last year when the chamber decided not to do it, that 18 years was enough, they just didn't have the horses to do it. Whether they have this year, I doubt," Mr. Reardon said.

He considered the festival in a philosophical light. "Maybe the Rotary will get tired of it in a year or two. Then it will be some other group that will pick it up. On that side of the coin, maybe that's good.

"I think that in Oyster Bay - the not for profits are sort of evolving in certain ways and some are getting older. The Oyster Bay-East Norwich Soccer Club has and will always have young people in the club - whether they want to run it one year is another consideration. They might have the horses to do it.

"There is the Lions Club. There are any number of organizations that could take on the job of running it.

"My vision of the Oyster Festival - and strictly my vision - is to have somebody like the Rotary spearheading the group but with a cross section of the community on the committee - and then have this Oyster Festival organization taking on a life of its own wherein it can run without Rotary. It would run with broad-based community support and give out the money on a wide broad-based community level.

"Say for example, say they made $100,000 they would decide to give $50,000, $30,000 or $20,000 to others.

"My view is to see it as a giant community fund raiser to get a special project to benefit from the funds that are raised, maybe to beautify Oyster Bay or beautify the harbor or a scholarship fund. Maybe there can be a lot of goals to aim for. Maybe I'm smoking my socks here - but this is the musing of a dreamer," said Mr. Reardon.

As he mused on he said maybe the PTA could be the sponsoring organization with the renovation of the OBHS auditorium/theater as the goal. It would be a project for the greater good of the community as a whole.

"And that's what I would like to see," he said.

One of the major changes in this year's festival was following the open container law and containing drinking inside the appropriate venues. The committee also asked for and got funding from several merchants selling alcohol to cover the advertising and cleanup of the festival. They paid what the food vendors do toward the running of the event.

Canterbury Ales paid $500; the Homestead gave an in-kind donation as did Verrelli's Market.

Mr. Reardon said there was nothing from Railz, nor Fidddleheads, nor Oyster Bay Beverage. Of the Olive Branch, he was not sure. Nino and Pepe gave in kind and South Street Cafe have given nothing yet and the Masons gave $500.

Al Dente gave nothing, but they got shut down as far as selling alcohol on Saturday, and so didn't do the business they would have hoped to have done for the weekend.

"It's kind of funny/odd," said Mr. Reardon. "We told some of the businesses in town - since we started, that we requested strict enforcement of the open container law, and when strictly enforced it was kind of unpleasant for some people. But we said it and said it and when we did it, it was like 'Holy Mackerel, they did it!'

Oyster Bay Beverage was told to shut down the operation because people were drinking on the premises. Al Dente was told to shut down the selling of alcohol because people were taking it off the premises.

The Book Mark Cafe is in kind of a strange position because their premises extends further than their building and that's why they can sell liquor on their premises which is beyond their building. As long as someone didn't walk off with a beer, it was all right within that confine, Daria Lamb said. If they stepped out of her premises then they were going to get a ticket and she was going to get a ticket.

Mr. Reardon said he heard nothing about the East Main Street Café, further down on East Main Street.

Mr. Reardon explained the VIP reception at the Homestead was credited to Republican candidate Chris Coshignano. "It was a naming opportunity," he said. Mr. Coshignano paid money to sponsor the event and the Homestead provided the food." We would have been out a lot more than $500 if they didn't," he said.

Daria Lamb, Oyster Bay Chamber of Commerce president said the group would decide on the Oyster Festival when the new board is installed. She said last week they were mailing out ballots for new nominees.

"The bylaws allow write-ins and by December the board is voted in," she said.

The next meeting of the chamber is on Nov. 8 at the Book Mark Café at 6 p.m. and is open to the public.

"We are trying to do the December meeting at Dodds & Eder," she said. Dodds & Eder's name during this season is "The Christmas Store."