Mansion Beach

Prologue

Podcast Title: Life and Death on an Island

Episode Title: “The Town Council”

Host: Welcome to Life and Death on an Island , produced by All Ears Media. I’m your host, Milton Anderson, and on this podcast we’re taking a deep dive, so to speak, into

life on a small island whose population increases nearly twentyfold from winter to summer. Last week you heard from several

restaurant owners about the challenges they face hiring and housing their workers, many of whom come to the island on J-1

visas. Next week, law enforcement discusses how the increasing number of underage drinkers is threatening island summers.

Today we’re talking to four members of the Block Island Town Council. Some of these members believe a mysterious death last

summer was related to issues of overdevelopment, landownership, and excessive lifestyles on the island.

If you could each begin by stating your name, your age, your profession, and what, if any, your relationship was to the deceased.

Betsy: I’ll start. I’m Betsy Meyers. I’m sixty-four years old. I’ve taught English at the high school for thirty years. I’m one

year away from retirement. My grandson, Henry, was the general contractor for the four houses Buchanan built last summer off

Beacon Hill Road. Never met the deceased personally, not one-on-one to have a conversation with. But I saw her. We all did.

She was quite memorable, with the hair and all. And I sure heard a lot about her.

Evan: Evan Miller, thirty-five. I own a store in town. The Hangry Angler? We sell fishing gear, and we have a sandwich shop in the

back. I might be biased but it’s the best meatball sub on the island. No relationship to the deceased, except observational.

Kelsey: Kelsey Amaral, twenty-seven. Nurse at the medical center here on the island and also at South County Hospital. The meatball

subs at the Angler are fire , by the way. I grew up on the island, left, swore I’d never come back, and here I am. I went to one of those big parties

last summer. It was insane. When I was a teenager, a party was a six-pack of beer and a bonfire on the beach. We’d barely

even heard of hard seltzer. I leave, I go to college, I get a nursing degree, and suddenly people are having like raw bars

and champagne at their parties?

(Pause.)

The deceased? I didn’t see her. But, yeah, looking back. She must have been there. Right? She must have been.

Lou: Lou Carpenter, seventy-one. I run a fishing charter out of Old Harbor Charter Dock. Right near where the ferries come in.

Every year I say it’s my last year. My daughter’s telling me to retire. And every year, there I am, same as always. I love

the water. Did I know the deceased? I didn’t. But if you ask me, it should be prerequisite to coming to an island that you

know how to swim.

Evan: Like, a swimming test at the ferry dock? Uh, I don’t think we can do that. We can barely get a noise ordinance passed.

Lou: Why not? The city of Venice started charging an entry fee. I don’t know why we can’t institute a swimming test.

Kelsey: Lots of people who know how to swim drown. I was on duty when they brought her in. The body had been in the water for hours

before it was found by that dog walker.

Betsy: It’s always a dog walker. I watch a lot of true crime, and let me tell you. It’s always a dog walker that finds the body.