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Angus McDonald: Eight Is Enough

Angus McDonald, Jr. remembers the telephone call almost eight years ago when he learned that longtime Deep River First Selectman Dick Smith had died of a heart attack. Angus, like Smith, a Democrat, was a member of the Board of Selectmen.

“I’ll be right over,” he said. And he has been there ever since. But now, after nearly eight years as first selectman, Angus is stepping down; he is not a candidate in the upcoming election.

“What will I miss? I will miss the people — the people in town hall, the people on the town crew, the people I work with, and the people in the community,” he says. “It’s amazing how involved people get; how much, even in difficult circumstances, they want to help.”

Angus, who will be 66 in a month, is satisfied that, like the old television show with Dick Van Patten, eight is enough.

There are things Angus will not miss. “How slowly government sometimes works,” he says. “I learned how long it can take to get things done.”

Though he will no longer be in office, he remains a committed Deep River booster.

“People know about Essex’s downtown; Chester had an amazing downtown, but we have a great downtown, too. We have art studios, restaurants; we have the shopping center. Deep River should never be overlooked,” he says. “Deep River Main Street is vibrant; that’s what I said in my last newsletter.”

Over his eight years, Angus says one of his objectives has been to position Deep River for future challenges, among them building a solar field on town property that will bring in, he notes, some $40,000 over the next 20 years.

He says the town is also close to settling a legal case to recover some $700,000 in back taxes due as a result of the closing of Mount St. John’s school. The property, he explains, was taxable as soon as it ceased being a school in 2019. The money will go into the town’s general fund, which allows both for additional capital funding and an increase in the town’s reserve fund.

One of the things Angus regrets is that he was never able to get a new firehouse built.

“I wish we could have put that through,” he says. One of the problems, he adds, is the small space the building occupies.

Angus’s initial career plans did not include politics or political office. When he graduated from Xavier High School in Middletown, he planned to be a teacher. His fields of study at Southern Connecticut State University were English and music. In those days, he was a piano player; now, he plays the bass guitar with the Corinthian Jazz Band.

He remembers in high school, he commuted to Middletown from Old Saybrook with Matthew Hoey, now the first selectman of Guilford.

“Who would have thought two knuckleheads from Old Saybrook would have ended up as first selectmen?” he says.

After college graduation, he worked as a musician and, at one point, managed a small theater in New Haven.

“Off, off Broadway,” he says. But, he supplemented his income working as a bartender for catering companies. “Remember, I was a musician,” he explains.

It was on a catering job that he met his wife, Andrea Isaacs, who owns Cloud Nine Catering and Cafe in Old Saybrook. Together, the pair own The Lace Factory, an event space in Deep River.

“I don’t think I could have taken this on and could not have done all this without Andrea’s support,” Angus says.

The couple live in a house next to The Lace Factory with their dog, Jaco. Angus says Jaco is a mix of black Lab and golden retriever but admits, with the very light coat, Jaco’s black Lab ancestry is not obvious.

Angus will once again be full-time at his business, Angus McDonald/Gary Sharpe Associates, a land surveying/civil engineering firm in Old Saybrook founded by his late father, Angus McDonald, Sr.

“On my birth certificate, it says I am Angus McDonald, Jr.,” he points out, “but I am the oldest Angus McDonald in my family now.”

He learned surveying first from his father. He recalls a newspaper story about Angus Sr., with a picture of his father showing him with a surveying tool. He was about 14 at the time.

In addition to surveying, he learned from his father the importance of civic participation. “He taught me to get involved in the community,” Angus says.

He served for one term on the Board of Selectman in Westbrook before moving to Deep River, where, besides serving on the Board of Selectmen and as first selectman, he has been involved with the Tri-Town Youth Services Bureau, the Water Pollution Control Authority, and the boards of Economic Development and Planning and Zoning.

As he leaves office, Angus has a message for the Deep River community. “I might not have done everything right, but no one tried harder to do what they thought was right,” he says.