JFK Jr camp-site tax battle

By STEPHEN BETTS/COURIER-GAZETTE

Posted/edited by TED COHEN/PATCH.COM

The Maine island where JFK Jr once summered is in the middle of a heated tax battle with the town tax assessor.

The assessor for Vinalhaven in the waters off the state's midcoast has appealed to the state’s top court to try to prove that the Hurricane Island Foundation should pay property taxes.

Hurricane Island is where John F. Kennedy Jr. spent part of a summer as a teenager at a ritzy wilderness-survival camp named for the island.

The assessor wants the Maine Supreme Judicial Court to overturn a decision by Justice Bruce Mallonee, who ruled the foundation is a scientific institution exempt from taxes.

The foundation offers educational programs on Hurricane Island, which is located off Vinalhaven island but part of the municipality.

The foundation controls property assessed by the town at nearly $650,000, with an annual tax bill of $8,000.

The dispute between the town and foundation started in 2019 when the organization filed for tax exemption as a literary or scientific institution.

Following a visit to Hurricane Island to see if the municipal records matched up with the buildings on the property, the tax assessor in 2019 rejected the request for tax-exempt status.

The foundation appealed to the courts.

The foundation occupies about two-thirds of Hurricane Island with a 40-year lease with Hurricane Island Trust that began in 2010.

The foundation said its mission is to integrate science education, applied research, and leadership development through year-round educational programs, and “a seasonal environmentally sustainable island community.”

The foundation argued in court papers that its programs provide science education to Vinalhaven students part-time each year.

In addition, the foundation provides a week of island education to Vinalhaven students.

During the past several years, students from mainland schools have gone there for classroom and field work, focusing on marine education.

Island’s history
From 1964-2006 Hurricane Island was a summer base camp for Outward Bound, an outdoor organization that conducted adventure-based courses structured to inspire self-esteem, self-reliance, concern for others, and care for the environment.

The organization is known for its sea kayaking, rock climbing, sailing, and pulling boat programs.

JFK Jr., the famous 16-year-old son of the assassinated president, spent part of a summer on the island in 1977 in its 26-day wilderness program.

Outward Bound has since moved its main office to nearby Camden and runs programs stretching from Maine to Florida, with two Maine base camps in Newry and Wheeler’s Bay.

Hurricane Island in the 1800s had been a year-round community with granite quarrying as the lifeblood of the community.

Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership’s website said “Hurricane Island was a company town, and workers’ pay went directly into an account at the company store. They earned between $1.75 and $2.50 per week.

"Paving Cutter’s and Quarrymen’s unions were among the first in the nation, and friction with management was constant.”

The peak of quarrying was from 1870 to 1900. The year-round population was estimated at 250 with a school that had 60 students.

Gen. Davis Tillson of Rockland owned the island and, according to the website, “Tillson ruled with an iron hand, and those Yankees who were registered voters were required to vote Republican.”

The last shipment from Hurricane Island, a barge of giant blocks for the Rockport, Mass. breakwater, foundered in heavy seas off Rockland on Nov. 8, 1914, and sank to the bottom of Penobscot Bay.

“Management came out to the island and announced the closing of the town virtually overnight. Tools were left where they dropped. People hastily assembled what belongings they could– some families having lived there almost 50 years and got on the boat.

"Town records were packed up and sent to Vinalhaven, and Hurricane Island once again became part of that town. All possible equipment was sold although some lies rusting on the island still,” the website notes.