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Summer People and
Development “From Away”
Since the opening
of regular ferry service to Swan’s Island in 1960, the summer
community on Swan’s has doubled, literally altering the island’s
coastal features.
According to Town
Selectman Dexter Lee, about every other house on the shores of Burnt
Coat Harbor is a summer home.
Island living
requires an ability to cope, as local writer and retired real estate
agent Peg Bailey wrote in a humorous, but biting essay posted at the
Swan’s Island Ferry Terminal. Titled “Swan’s Island Is Not For
Everyone,” Bailey warns off the high-maintenance vacationer,
describing “the simple rhythm of days which are determined by the
comings and goings of tide and ferry.” Visitors with different
expectations of the island will not stay, she believes.
Those who have made
uninformed choices, according to Les Ranquist, seafood distributor
and owner of the Underwater Taxi Company restaurant, will leave on
their own. He says the seasonal community actually draws like-minded
people who bring new relationships and alternative industries to the
island.
Along with
contributing to the island economy, this year’s island-wide land
assessments brought into relief the already gradual shift of the
rising cost of shorefront properties. Some individual owners paid in
taxes the equivalent amount collected from the entire island 30
years ago.
Higher prices in
turn increase pressure on already limited land and resources,
justifying the growing concern of year-round island residents over
maintaining a Swan’s Island working waterfront, Burnt Coat Harbor.
Islanders hope
discussion and action will lead to the preservation of the natural
state of the island’s shoreline and the provision of land for young
year-round families with lower incomes. |
