I THURSDAY, MAY 17,1990 Editorial Calm down, Mr. Dickey

I

THURSDAY, MAY 17,1990

Editorial

Calm down, Mr. Dickey

We find the comments of David Dickey, legal counsel for The Inn at Little Washington, puzzling.

Even as the Inn’s Citizens’ Advisory Committee surveys the opinions of the town’s residents with an eye toward reaching some common ground on which to proceed with the Inn’s expansion, Mr. Dickey’s verbal and written blasts at the town’s ordinances and its attorney’s opinions seem to us to be unnecessary, counter-productive and needlessly inflammatory.

We understand that his job, as the Inn’s counsel, is to represent the interests of his clients. However, there is a way to do that without needlessly aggravating the situation; or, in the words of Treasurer Brad Fisher, “insulting the alligator before you cross the river. ”

In particular, his parting shot in a lengthy memo addressed to the Town Council seems to us an ultimatum, and far from the suggestions of a willingness to compromise offered by his clients, Patrick O’Connell and Reinhardt Lynch. To suggest that a refusal to grant the rezoning would “constitute a declaration by the Council that the Town of Washington does not welcome the continued presence of the Inn in this community” reads to us not as an invitation to compromise but a rather an out-and-out threat.

Mr. Dickey might do well to remember that, although the town certainly benefits from the presence of the world-famous Inn at Little Washington, part of the Inn’s charm and mystique is a result of its setting in the beautiful and quaint village of Washington, Virginia.

The relationship is symbiotic — one from which both parties benefit. We urge compromise, and with it an end to this hyperbolic rhetoric which only serves to inflame passions needlessly and divert attention from the real issues which must be addressed.

This is not the time to draw lines in the dirt.

I