Thetford
In an email to supporters, the Friends of Treasure Island said its attempts to contribute toward care of the town-owned beach on Lake Fairlee have gone nowhere, largely because Thetford officials either presented a moving target for the group’s involvement or demanded too much.
Meanwhile, Thetford officials said collaboration with the group was limited by municipal regulations and Thetford’s insurance company. Although the town is moving forward with plans to open for the season, it’s not clear what the long-term future holds for Treasure Island, which is in West Fairlee but owned by Thetford.
“It’s very disappointing we couldn’t work this out,” Alexis Jetter, a founding member of Friends of Treasure Island, said on Monday. “It’s more than disappointing to me. It’s heartbreaking to me we couldn’t do that.”
Jetter and several Thetford and Fairlee residents have been working over the past 10 months to create a long-term maintenance and management plan for Treasure Island. Together, they started the nonprofit Friends of Treasure Island after what they characterize as a particularly tough summer at the beach.
Last year, the longtime caretakers were asked to leave the property after the town said it couldn’t afford necessary building repairs at the caretaker’s hut. A 12-year-old boy also died in August after a “near-drowning incident” on the lake, and several outbuildings on the property fell further into disrepair.
The idea of a fundraising group for the public beach began to take shape at community forums last fall, and the Friends of Treasure Island formally presented its initial business plan for the property in December.
Under the plan, the nonprofit offered to raise money for improvements at Treasure Island, such as rehabilitation of the caretaker’s house into a multipurpose center and restoration of the town’s summer camp.
On a short-term basis, the group also offered to help manage the site. They suggested hiring a park manager and other employees to assist, as well.
“Initially, the plan put forward, which is what the Selectboard also thought was the way forward, was for us to basically lease Treasure Island from the town and operate it for one year,” Jetter said. “But the problem was that we were going to have to have, as the lessee, liability insurance and all other kinds of insurance.”
Finding a company that would provide any form of insurance to the Friends of Treasure Island turned out to be an insurmountable task, Jetter said. As a beach property open to the public, she said, the park poses a large risk.
Add on the recent death and fact that the nonprofit was new, and it’s easy to see why the group was being quoted $30,000 a year for insurance, Jetter said.
“We were an unknown nonprofit. We were brand new, so we had no history,” she said.
Instead, the group decided to offer the town a different model, one where Thetford would continue providing insurance and employing a manager and lifeguards while the nonprofit would help manage the site under the Selectboard’s discretion.
“They liked that idea,” Jetter said, adding the two groups also agreed to keep their finances separate.
But she was told anyone working for the town would need to draw a paycheck, which led to the group agreeing to put earnings into a public fund that would help Treasure Island.
“Then it stopped dead in its tracks,” Jetter said, referring to discussions between town officials and the nonprofit.
When she tried to ask why progress was no longer being made, Jetter said, she was told the town’s attorney had nixed their idea, and she was instead offered the original proposal, where the nonprofit would be responsible for paying insurance fees.
“So that’s where the matter stands. We cannot, in good conscience, ask the people of Thetford — or any donors, for that matter — to pay tens of thousands of dollars to an insurance company before we can fix one toilet,” the Friends of Treasure Island wrote in a letter to supporters last week. “That just doesn’t make any sense.”
Selectboard member Jessica Eaton said on Tuesday that the town did try to work with the nonprofit, but was limited in some aspects by its insurance company.
“They wanted the town to extend our insurance to cover the Friends of Treasure Island, which we cannot legally do,” Eaton said.
She deferred further questions on the talks to Selectboard Chairman Stuart Rogers. Multiple messages and emails left for him and the board’s three other members were not returned on Monday or Tuesday.
Although the talks have stalled, Eaton said, the last year has produced some positive change at Treasure Island.
The town currently is gearing up for the summer season, she said, adding the beach will see two returning lifeguards; another three are training for the roles. Thetford also hired a manager for the site, Eaton said, but she declined to name that person until the town finalizes their employment.
The Treasure Island parking lot also has been renovated to be more accessible, she said, and several trees were removed by the town forester to make way for healthy growth.
But long-term planning for the site has been placed on the “back burner” until the Selectboard decides how it wants to address the property’s future direction, according to Eaton.
Jetter also said she’s not sure whether the Friends of Treasure Island will approach the Selectboard again.
“It is a precious, rare, exquisitely beautiful place,” she said. “There aren’t so many of those places.”
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.