![]() The corporation was founded in 1940 by descendants of Joseph Peabody, a wealthy shipping merchant from Massachusetts who bought the island more than 200 years ago in the early 1800s. “Anything that would benefit the community they don’t want to see,” Carver said. The primary way they are known to people who live in the area, he said, is by their reputation. Inc., said he’s lived in the area his whole life and never met any of Roque Island’s owners. Still, apart from their legal filings, the owners of Roque Island seem to be largely unknown in Jonesport and surrounding towns.Īlbert Carver, a resident of neighboring Beals and owner of local seafood distributor A.C. It has nothing to do with keeping Jonesport from evolving.” As much as people say we aren’t part of the community there, we are part of the community. “That’s what we care about,” Fischer said. They want to protect the environment and encourage sustainable growth, such as small-scale aquaculture that won’t degrade the natural resources so many area residents rely on. “If they had their choice, nothing would happen in Jonesport economically.”īut Ariana Fischer, an interior designer in Portland and chairman of the family corporation’s board, said she and her fellow island owners want what is best for Jonesport and the surrounding area. “It’s a very sore spot for me,” Alley said. The corporation “always” objects to its property tax bills and is working against the town’s efforts to boost its fortunes, he said. The relationship between the corporation and town has long been contentious, said Dwight Alley, a former Jonesport selectman who serves on the town’s economic development committee. ![]() “Working families are challenged,” he said. It’s dropped from roughly 3,500 residents in the decade after World War II, when there were several sardine canning factories locally, to around 1,400 today. “Our population has imploded,” Milliken said. The county also has struggled with drug addiction, which has led to high overdose rates and a recent spike in violent crime - all things that could be better addressed if there were more good jobs available, he said. Washington County has long had one of the highest unemployment rates in the state, and Jonesport’s high school enrollment has dropped by 50 percent - from roughly 130 to 65 this year - since the 1970s, Milliken has said. The corporation and town the have been increasingly at odds in recent years over the fish farm proposal, the corporation’s property taxes, and public access to seaweed. In this Google Earth image, Roque Island and other islands owned by the family-owned Roque Island Gardner Homestead Corporation can be seen east of the Jonesport peninsula, where Kingfish Maine hopes to build a large land-based fish farm. The farm would draw in water from the bay for its fish, treat it, and then pump it back out, but with nitrogen levels that project opponents say could harm the bay’s water quality. The group has cited environmental concerns in strongly opposing the Kingfish plan to buy land and build a large fish farm overlooking Chandler Bay, which separates Roque Island from the rest of the town. The members visit Washington County in the summer with family and other guests, taking turns at the five houses located on the 1,300-acre Roque Island and six smaller islands to the immediate south and east, all located within the town of Jonesport. The corporation consists of more than 100 members, all loosely related to each other. “We’re tired of this friction Protect Downeast is causing,” he said. Still, he added, the group “continues to get people worked up with inaccurate information” about how the fish farm will affect the area. The group also endorsed the idea of enacting a temporary aquaculture ban in Jonesport, which Milliken pointed out was rejected by local voters by a 2-to-1 margin. ![]() Protect Downeast, a not-for-profit group created by the corporation to oppose the Kingfish project, has hired attorneys to oppose it at local planning board meetings. “We’re really getting sick of it,” said Billy Milliken, chairman of the town’s selectboard. ![]()
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