FREEPORT

Freeport town councilors will hold their annual meeting on Bustin’s Island tonight which, in some ways, will be more like traveling 100 years back through time than weighing municipal policy.

Not quite half a mile off the southern tip of Flying Point, Bustin’s Island remains an oasis of rusticity — which is how its seasonal residents like it and want it to stay. The island has its own village committee and is largely self-governing. Bustin’s is so small that it consumes little of the town’s resources, save for the occasional rescue or police call. So tonight’s meeting is expected to be loose, equal parts ceremony and socializing.

“There are a couple of councilors and a new town manager that we haven’t met yet,” said Robert Boone, chairman of the Bustin’s Island Village committee. “It’s mostly just a meet-andgreet.

Sometimes we do a potluck supper.”

Meetings are held in the island’s community center and usually last about an hour or two.

Only about 200 people live on Bustin’s Island during the summer months. “On a big weekend, there might be 250,” Boone said, but added that nobody attempts to winter there.

“There are no year-round residents,” he said. “But some might try to spend an overnight or two.”

The island’s homes are small and more ornate and sophisticated than, but reminiscent of, the ubiquitous hunting and fishing camps so common to the state’s western hills and lakes regions. Portable generators or dedicated solar collection systems provide the only electricity, and almost all of the cottages still use liquid propane for lights, heat, cooking and refrigeration.

The few and narrow streets are lit by old fashioned-looking lamps which, until recently, were fueled by natural gas. Now they, too, are exclusively solar-powered, Boone said.

It’s romantic and vintage and one expects everything to carry a distinctly sepia-toned tint. Think: A seaside vacation resort writ small, the after-image of a Freeport that never passed 1903.

Which might explain why some of the councilors look forward to this more than other meetings.

“There are no votes, no attendance, not much business to do,” said at-large councilor Rich DeGrandpre. “They’re one of three island village corporations in the state. We return a chunk of their taxes to them and they manage their own affairs.”

The island has its own ferry, the Lily B., named for longtime island superintendent Lily Brewer. It will leave the South Freeport wharf at 5 p.m. and depart the island between 8 and 8:30 p.m.

jtleonard@timesrecord.com