Looking For A Few Good Families
Today the front page of the New London Day has an article about Fishers Island that is pretty interesting, and POSITIVE!! There is a great front page picture of Aaron, Jake and Shelby Lusker! You should pick up a copy if you can or check it out at www.theday.com another link that should work for today is
http://www.theday.com/eng/web/news/re.aspx?re=22A96D7A-4E33-48E9-A6FC-6D7A05F19954
Here is the text alone:
Looking For a Few Good Families
Fishers Island Campaigns To Increase Population
By RICK KOSTER
Features
Published on 7/25/2005
Paradise is slowly leaking ... people.
But not today.
Today is a green-gold July afternoon, and flashes of blue salt water pop in and out of view like exclamation points. Children wielding ice cream cones charge with abandon across a town quad while an old-timer reads a newspaper in front of a small restaurant. A few blocks away to the north, a horn sounds as a ferry leaves for the mainland. In the other direction, families luxuriate on beaches facing the Atlantic.
Here, in the island's village proper, a sort of Mayberry-by-the-sea community is in the giddy throes of its annual summer population boom. Amid it all, Meredith Harr is comfortably piloting her Volvo station wagon, in the dignified autumn of its years, around the curvy byways.
A gifted tour guide and community cheerleader who seems to know each resident and loping pet by name, Harr, the Island Administrator, points out everything with mellow delight — whether it's a bowling alley, the island's school, a liquor store, or the site of a future community center.
"This is a wonderful place to live,᾿ says Harr, who came to the island a year ago. "The summer people like it for what it means to them as a diversion. But for the year-round residents, it's a way of life, (and they) want to keep it this way because it's quaint and cute and private. But there's a price to be paid for that.᾿
Indeed. Over time, the year-round population on the island has slowly dwindled. After World War II, while Fort H.G. Wright, a military installation active on the island from 1879 to 1948, was at peak occupancy, Fishers Island's full-time population peaked at around 1,500.
Today, decades after the fort closed, people continue to trickle off the island — located about five miles off the coast of New London and measuring about seven miles long — and the number of year-rounders is down to about 250.
For maintaining a tax base, staffing vital facilities like the firehouse and the post office, and keeping the island's school open, the year-round population is dangerously low.
"If the trend continues to go in the same direction, we won't have enough volunteers to handle operations like the fire department,᾿ says Susan Lusker, who lives in the Walsh Park development with her husband, Aaron, and two children. He's a contractor and she's a caterer. "If (we lose these volunteer services), then they become paid services, and taxes go out the window. And if we run out of kids to attend the school, we lose that. And at that point I don't know that we could get it all started again.᾿
Which is why Harr is on Fishers Island to begin with. For all her enthusiasm and delight in the lifestyle of the place, Harr is a realist. Even more importantly, she's a hired-gun realist, brought in at the behest of residents here to work on problems arising out of under-population. Harr is a planner for Island Institute, a nonprofit outfit in Maine dedicated to the financial and cultural survival of that state's 15 year-round island communities.
The institute likes to concentrate on a formula of well-being for an island community based on such needs and issues as affordable housing; technology and its connections to the mainland; transportation; schools and the number of students; changing demographics; the diversity and availability of island employment; and cost of living.
Fishers Island is the first non-Maine island to get help from the institute, and Harr is the personification of that assistance.
She says, "The original idea to consult the Island Institute gradually gained momentum through word of mouth and community conversation.᾿ News of some of the island's work, chiefly with Peaks Island near Portland, Maine, which has similarities to Fishers Island, became a topic of curiosity.
"A delegation from Fishers Island found out about the work we'd done on Peaks Island and visited us there,᾿ says Chris Wolff, coordinator for the Island Institute Fellows Program, who was at Fishers recently for a presentation to citizens. "They were impressed by what we'd done and our philosophies and requested a fellowship.᾿
•••HARR WAS ULTIMATELY CHOSEN as the administrator for Fishers Island for a two-year residence. The simple description of her assignment is to increase the population by about 50 but no more than 100 people.
The job is not as simple as enticing people to come over and set up permanent residence on a beautiful island, however. At issue are such things as the availability of affordable housing, as well as whether the incoming residents would be bringing children to bolster school enrollment. Also, new arrivals should be interested in the sort of community involvement necessary to maintain the island.
"We're taking baby steps,᾿ Harr says. "Today, my answer is we don't want to lose the people we've got. First we stop the leak, and then we move forward. If one family a year leaves, that's devastating.᾿
Harr is trying to coordinate the residents, identify immediate and then longer-term goals, shift the focus of community meetings from reactive to proactive, and tailor programs to the distinct characteristics of the island.
"Each island with year-round residents has its own culture and personality,᾿ she says. "In many ways, it's helpful that I come here as an outsider, with no preconceptions or prejudices. I think what we do in that context is a lot like the Peace Corps.᾿
Essentially, the island has two peacefully coexisting but dramatically different communities. On the east end is the closed-gate enclave called the Fishers Island Development Corporation, which boasts neo-Newportian mansions, an ultra-private golf course and inhabitants who might be described in understatement as the wealthier here.
On the other end is the Village, whose year-rounders live much more modestly. If there hasn't been a lot of animosity between the two neighborhoods, it is fair to say that the gated community folks have historically tended to keep to themselves.
Yet all the year-rounders have a stake in the island's well-being, regardless of where they live on the island, and Harr says getting everyone interested in that well-being is essential.
Thus far, under Harr's guidance, residents are now fusing an old island governing body — the Fishers Island Civic Association — with a newer group, the Island Community Board. In June, there were elections to fill new board posts comprised of three year-round members and three seasonal members.
Harr says the positions were filled with a surprisingly large voter turnout, and that the board's initial meetings have been to establish immediate goals. These include everything from the building of a community center to examination of land-use proposals; clarification of town tax issues to tennis court relocations.
She has also established The Fog Horn, an island newsletter and online presence.
"It sounds simple, but it's a way to keep communication open. And, through the forum, we've generated a lot of ideas,᾿ Harr says. "Getting people behind this stuff on both ends of the island is essential, and I think it's now working. We have monthly meetings as opposed to quarterly, and people from both ends show up and contribute proactive ideas. There's a lot at stake here.᾿
•••BY DEFINITION, JEANNE SCHULTZ, superintendent of the Fishers Island School, plays a significant role in the island's future. She says she is encouraged by Harr's work and the philosophy of the institute, particularly with regard to the importance of the school.
Schultz and Harr point to a slow exodus over the years of families who've sought high school education on the mainland so their teenagers wouldn't miss out on certain social and athletic opportunities.
"The key to Fishers Island's survival is to keep the community stable, and a big part of that is the school,᾿ Schultz says. "We have to keep the school competitive and offer educational and social experiences that make families want to stay here.᾿
Fishers Island School offers a complete curriculum for pre-kindergarten through high school students, both for island residents as well as magnet program children who pay tuition to attend. In recent years, total enrollment has been between 50 and 60 students with a student-teacher ratio of about four-to-one. Last year, there were 21 magnet students commuting on a ferry ride that takes about 45 minutes each way.
The school has tailored scholastics to emphasize certain subjects pertinent to island life, including a focus on maritime studies from seventh through 12th grades. To that end, the school started a maritime program with the University of Connecticut at Avery Point. Instructors at Groton's Avery Point work with Fishers Island teachers on studies of music, art, science, ecology and history in a maritime context. It's possible for students to get college credit for the work.
In another area, there are thousands of dollars in scholarships available to Fishers Island students — and with the small student body, financial aid is a very real possibility for students seeking to go to college.
"From my perspective, I'm pleased with the way things are going with the school,᾿ Schultz says. "We're turning it around. I look for teachers who wantto live on the island and who have families. It's a self-perpetuating situation.᾿
Some people think of full-time residence on an island as perhaps that most idyllic of lifestyles. Others recoil at the thought of the cruelties of the off-season months, when isolation and cabin fever creep in.
"When we came here in 1991, there were close to 350 people living here full time,᾿ says Lusker, whose family demographic as a Walsh Park resident probably best described the ideal candidate for a new full-time Fishers Islander. "It's a lifestyle you have to understand and appreciate, but we love it. We'd love to see a few more people here who can appreciate and contribute year-round. This is a well-kept secret and a wonderful place. I have an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old, and they could never have a childhood like this anywhere else.᾿
For those on the island all calendar long, amenities include a bowling alley, a restaurant/inn, an American Legion post that has served as a community headquarters, and a grocery store that opens two hours a day in the winter.
If that sounds a bit bleak, Harr points to work on a new community center, which will provide a much needed rallying spot during the cold months. There will be a work-out room, possibly a screening room for films, and meeting rooms.
"This is a step in the right direction,᾿ she says. "Not only is it something we need, but the enthusiasm in the community for it has been a lot of fun, actually. Everyone's got ideas.᾿
Ideas about housing will come in handy, too, Harr says.
"The number one issue, in terms of getting people here, is housing,᾿ she says. There is not much available real estate, and Fishers Islanders are adamant about maintaining a lot of greenery, Harr says, and that's as it should be.
Ideally, Harr says, some of the empty buildings at the old fort would provide housing opportunities. The land was sold off by the federal government when the base closed and bought up by various individuals and groups.
"But there are a lot of hurdles before any of those buildings could be used for housing,᾿ Harr says. "First, they're zoned commercial. So that would have to change. Too, the people who own them, for whatever reason, are sitting on the properties they bought cheap. Maybe they're thinking of riding it out and holding them till they can ask for a lot of money. Either way, it'll be a while.᾿
The Walsh Park subdivision is an experiment in affordable housing that has worked well for families like the Luskers. An island-wide initiative a few decades ago offered home ownership possibilities to year-round working people living on the island — seemingly a near-impossibility even then given the real estate market and prices.
Consisting of 12 mostly modular homes, many of which have been updated by homeowner such as the Luskers, Walsh Park is considered an ideal example of what could be done for newcomers, providing that land becomes available for further such developments.
At this point, that's a big issue.
"People are concerned that their lifestyles will slip away and are reluctant to sell land,᾿ Harr says. "They worry about new investors flip-flopping property, and it's a legitimate concern.
"Right now, I feel a bit like the Magical Mystery Woman. We need new residents, but where are you gonna put 'em? And my answer right now is I don't know.᾿
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