Ferry District A Go

A special Thimble Island Ferry District has been formally approved in order to provide reliable service for those families with homes on the islands.

Ferry problems developed several years ago, a combination of economics and a change in ferry ownership. The islanders sought to find a permanent way to solve their common problem. On Saturday, by a 51 – 4 vote, they did. 

The major island owner, Christine Svenningsen, did not attend the meeting in part because her houses are listed as corporate entities; under state statute, corporations cannot vote, and she cannot stand for election. She now owns 10 of the two-dozen inhabitable Thimble Islands. Eight of her islands have houses on them but the majority of her houses stand empty. Her attorneys have been apprised of the new ferry district. 
 

The effort to create a new ferry tax district took a year and a half and required the legislature to amend state statutes governing special tax districts. The town’s state legislators, Reps. Lonnie Reed, Pat Widlitz and Sen. Ed Meyer, worked to amend the statutes to include ferry service during the last legislative session. 

Reed, Widlitz and Meyer (pictured) were among an audience of about 100 people gathered in the steamy community room at the Stony Creek Church of Christ 192 Thimble Island Rd. Now that the statutes are amended, the Thimble Island owners were called to the meeting to vote to create the new ferry tax district or not. 

Charlie Goetsch, a New Haven attorney, was the point person on the project. The idea was to find a permanent way to pay for essential ferry service to and from the Stony Creek dock, a service that has been part of the Thimble Island landscape for more than a century.

“This is the beginning of an effort by the taxpayers of the Thimble Islands and Stony Creek, I would hope as well, to try to find a way to have an economically viable ferry service,” Goetsch said in an interview afterwards. ​“We will know a lot more after Aug. 27,” the date when the new tax district holds its first annual meeting and elects a permanent set of officers and a board.

The Board of Selectmen (pictured) convened the unusual Saturday meeting. The purpose, said First Selectman Unk DaRos, was to outline the creation of a new tax district. If the eligible voters then wanted to approve the new district, they would do so by voting for or against it, he said.

Fifty-six eligible voters emerged from the crowd. While the new taxing district gave the group the ability to undertake other activities, such as paving roads or planting trees, they were not required to do so, Third Selectman John Opie said.

After much back and forth, one islander summed it up: ​“Without the ferry we are in trouble.” The overwhelming vote to create the district came next. 

Voters lined up at the ballot box after a 45-minute discussion over equity in the taxing structure and whether a tax had to be a tax or whether a fee per family might work. There was some debate among islanders over whether a single family island would wind up paying more for the ferry use than multiple families living on one island. That issue, and others, will be resolved once the district begins to function. 

Not everyone could vote. Town Counsel William H. Clendenen, Jr., interpreted the relevant statutes and found that while one might be an eligible voter, that person could not vote by proxy or by absentee ballot. The voter had to be physically present at the meeting. The statutes limit voting to persons who are United States citizens over the age of 18. To vote that person has to have a residence in the Thimble Islands and be registered to vote in Branford or have a residence in the Thimble Islands and be liable for taxes of more than $1,000. This would also apply to a natural person who is a trustee of a trust holding the property. But it does not apply to a residence held in the name of a corporate entity.

The new ferry district includes 21 islands. According to the Thimble Islands Association, which is a private, voluntary group, 70 of the 78 properties are assessed below $1 million. Of those ​“the overwhelming majority is assessed between $200,000 and $500,000.” Two islands are exempt: Outer Island is used by Southern Connecticut State University for ecological studies and is part of the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge. Horse Island, is owned by Yale University and is maintained as an ecological laboratory by Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History. Neither educational entity pays taxes. 
 
All 78 taxable properties, with residences on them, including the Svenningsen properties, are part of the tax district. The total value of the Thimble Island taxable assessed properties is nearly $54.9 million. While Svenningsen does not use the ferry, she will be taxed along with everyone else to support it. Some believe that the ferry service began to suffer when her islands no longer used the service.

Over the last seven years, Svenningsen has become one of the top three taxpayers in Branford and she is also a top employer. She is rarely seen in public; her closely-held plans for the islands have become the subject of speculation in the town. Last year she married John G. Chiarella, Jr., a landscaping entrepreneur who manages her islands, at her home on Rogers Island.

In their first action, the Thimble voters created a temporary board along with acting officers of the new tax district. Goetsch (pictured) became acting president at the group’s first meeting, which followed on the heels of the earlier meeting.

The new tax district will decide the budget and mill rate for the ferry. If, for example, the budget is $30,000, then in arriving at assessed value of the parcel multiplied by the mill rate, a house worth $300,000 would pay $162.00 in district tax. A house valued at $1 million would pay $540.00 a year in district tax. Svenningsen’s properties are assessed at far higher amounts.
 
The Thimble Islands Association could not serve as a taxing district because it is a private, voluntary organization. No one is required to join and it has no power to tax, Goetch said in an interview. 

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