“There’s not much to do for work if you’re not a fisherman or a carpenter,” said Swan’s Island resident Chris Carlson. Carlson lost his job recently after working for 9 years at the Swan’s Island Electric Cooperative. “Living out here makes it awful hard. In order for me and my family to survive-we have to leave the island”, Carlson said.
Chris Carlson, 33, lives on Swan’s Island. His mother lives on Swan’s Island. His grandmother and his grandfather, an 82-year-old lobsterman, live on Swan’s Island. Leaving an island is not like leaving a mainland town.
Carlson says he regrets having to leave the island, especially leaving his elderly grandparents who have many health issues. “Our plan is to move off after the kids get out of school,” Carlson said.
To leave the island will be hard, but Carlson knows it is what he has to do to provide for his wife Lindsay, and their two young sons, Eric and Stanley. “My boys are strong. They’ll adjust pretty quickly,” Carlson said
The recession has made it an especially tough winter on Swan’s Island. As is true for many Maine islands, the economy depends on the lobster industry. When lobster prices plummeted last fall, lobstermen knew difficult times were ahead. The drop in price left many lobstermen and their families vulnerable heading into the long winter months.
If Carlson and his family leave the island, a total of 13 people will have moved off Swan’s Island in the past few months, nearly 4 percent of the island’s population of 327. In addition, the island’s Methodist Church just held its last service.
The recession’s impact is being felt in other ways. As true of all islands, energy costs, such as heating oil, are considerably higher. Electric power is almost twice as expensive on Swan’s Island, said Ed Schwabe, Secretary of the Swan’s Island Electric Cooperative Board of Trustees.
This February, cooperative members were only able to pay 63 percent of the power billed that month. It was the toughest month yet this winter in terms of accounts receivable and it is expected that nearly 100 accounts will receive disconnect notices due to their delinquent status in March.
According to the Public Utilities Commission regulations, the Swan’s Island Electric Cooperative can disconnect power of delinquent accounts beginning on April 15. With little or no income, many residents will be unable to make arrangements to keep their power on after that date.
In an effort to help residents make it through these tough times, the Bread of Life Food Pantry, located at the back of the island’s old firehouse, provides assistance. Reverend Ken Dutille, pastor of the Swan’s Island Baptist Church, operates the food pantry. “We are serving a lot of families with young children this winter,” said Dutille. “In the past, our clients tended to be elderly or single person households. This year many young families are in need.” The food pantry is currently serving about 45 households on the island. According to the 2000 census, there were 142 year-round households on the island, which means about one-third of all households are receiving some kind of food assistance this winter.
In March 2009, the food pantry received $7,500 from the Town’s general assistance fund. Dutille feels he will need about $13,000 to provide food assistance this year and will have to make up the difference in a variety of different ways, including solicitation of donations and grant money.
If you can’t find work on the island, traveling to the mainland is an option. But that means a twice-daily 30-minute ride to Bass Harbor on Mount Desert Island aboard the Henry Lee, the Maine State Ferry Service’s vessel. This winter one of the daily round-trip runs for Swan’s Island was eliminated in an effort to reduce operating costs. The ferry service has promised to restore the run once the switch to the summer schedule occurs in May. When asked if future cuts in service are planned, ferry service manager Jim McLeod, from Rockland, said the schedule would be stable through 2009, but he could not rule out the possibility of an additional fare increase this year. Due to the already high price of ferry fares, many residents have been forced to greatly reduce the number of trips they make to the mainland.
There are several Swan’s Island residents working full-time on the mainland, but disruption in the ferry service makes this challenging. Mainland employers have to be very accommodating when employing an island resident. Weather conditions, boat issues, and ferry dock conditions all play a part in the reliability of transportation to the mainland. Employers must be willing to work around the ferry schedule and residents must be prepared to spend an unexpected night in a mainland hotel when the ferry doesn’t run.
Between 1950 and 2000, the island population has declined more than 30 percent. The school age population is declining even more rapidly. In 1960, the island’s elementary school had 82 students attending grades K – 8. Today, there are only 30 students, a 63 percent decrease.
Not only is the school’s population dwindling, but the churches are struggling, too. The Methodist Church, built in 1891, held its last winter Sunday service Feb. 22. With nearly half of its small congregation moving off the island this winter, the Methodists were unable to support a year-round pastor any longer. There had been an active Methodist congregation on the island since 1834 and the closing of the year-round church is indeed a sad event.
It was evident at the Annual Town Meeting on March 2 that the Board of Selectmen was fully aware of the current economic situation. In an effort to not raise taxes, the Selectmen presented a very lean budget to residents for approval. One item of great concern in the Annual Town Report was the increased amount of delinquent property taxes owed to the town. The number of residents unable to pay their taxes rose in 2008 and it is expected to be even worse this year.