Should Islands be for everyone?

[islandstudent]

With the prices of islands being so high in locally driven markets, it is becoming almost impossible for even an upper middle class family to purchase a cottage island. More and more governments are buying up privately owned island and making them available for public use. What does everyone thing about this?

The following article is an example of this:

City asked to pitch in to buy rustic island

By AMY PUGSLEY FRASER City Hall Reporter
ADVERTISEMENT



For a young girl from New York, spending summers on a rustic island in St. Margarets Bay during the 1940s was like going back in time.

"There is something very special about island living," Ros Micou Winsor said Wednesday. "You really feel closer to nature.

"We didn’t have electricity on the island until 1948 and I can remember being very disappointed to see our life with kerosene lamps go by the wayside."

During her childhood, her annual excursions to the place they called Indian Lot Island were ones she looked forward to.

"I love to swim and we’ve always relied on rowboats and canoes to get back and forth to the island," she said, noting that you can walk to the island by sandbar when the tide is low.

She can easily appreciate why her parents fell in love with the place when they came to the area in 1929, a year after they married.

"They were touring around and they saw it," she remembered in a phone interview from her Newton, Mass., home.

"They weren’t planning to buy it, but when they heard the sale price of $1,100, they had to."

Now, with grown children, Mrs. Winsor is selling the property the locals refer to as Micou Island in her family’s honour.

"My children aren’t interested in continuing with the family vacation and it’s becoming too much for us," she said.

Two years ago, the St. Margarets Bay Stewardship Association approached her about a possible sale.

"We always felt that the island should be used by the surrounding community," she said, referring to its location at the end of Indian Point. "We welcomed people coming there to bathe and to boat and to walk through the woods, so I am utterly delighted with this project."

Securing the nine-hectare island — listed at $780,000 — for public use was kick-started last week by a $500,000 provincial government announcement. A further $220,000 in private donations has increased the fund, but with about $280,000 still required for upgrades and renovations, city hall has been asked to get on board.

At a regional council meeting this week, Coun. Gary Meade (Hammonds Plains-St. Margarets) received council’s support to get staff to look into the possibility of partnering with the association and contributing some money to the cause. "I think it’s a great idea," he said Wednesday. "It’s a wonderful place with a nice picnic area and a sandy beach."

Mr. Meade, who grew up about three kilometres away in Glen Haven, said he has visited the island more than 100 times.

( apugsley@herald.ca)

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Metro/561855.html
_________________
No man is an island who owns one

[Rod]

Wow, the article turned out to be nothing like I expected. I thought we were going to discuss governments seizing islands for use by the many. Thank goodness we're not doing that!

In this case it seems like a good idea so long as the public has access to the island like they do other parks.

Interesting article.