One misconception people have is that islanders get the same town services as mainland residents. This is clearly not true.
Islanders get little police protection or response from the town police. If you call 911 it is the Marine Patrol that answers your call not the town police. New Hampshire has a law that says when on an island the Marine Patrol have the same powers as local police.
As a practical matter island residents are precluded from using the local schools which are a large part of our taxes. Even if a resident decided to winter over on an island there are several weeks of the year that the ice is either forming or breaking up and children would not be able to attend school. I don't know of any islander that has ever sent a child to local schools since the Bear Island School closed.
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