Prospects for a smooth transfer of the Navy’s communication base at Schoodic Point to Acadia National Park promise to assure the park’s integrity. But the economic impact on Winter Harbor is still up in the air.

Nearby communities, especially Winter Harbor and Gouldsboro, had become heavily dependent on the base in the years since John D. Rockefeller brokered a deal in the 1930s to move a communications station and tower from Otter Cliffs on Mount Desert Island to make way for the Park Loop Road. As the base expanded to its present 100 acres on Schoodic Point, the original 25-acre tract somehow was left out of a provision for eventual reversion of the base to the park. The state of Maine earlier this year moved to apply for ownership of those 25 acres, to involve itself in the interests of the local communities.

Gov. Angus King withdrew any state interest in the land on April 13, permitting the reversion to go forward. The Park Service has designated the area for a future learning and research center, which could be up and running in two years or so.

As the Navy pulls out, Winter Harbor especially is feeling the pinch. Enrollment in the elementary school will drop from 120 to 60 by December and down to 30 when the base finally closes in mid-2002, says Jean Marshall, who is helping guide the impact of the base closing as “defense conversion coordinator” under the Eastern Maine Development Corp. The town’s water and sewer district will lose one-third of its present 80 users. And the population of just less than 1,000 will drop to 500.

As envisaged by Friends of Acadia, which pressed for the state’s withdrawal of interest, the center would provide considerable economic stimulus to the area by attracting such visitors as researchers and student and Elderhostel groups.

But from the park’s point of view, the new center must serve the park’s aims of re-search and service to the public. Area economic benefits, which may eventually be substantial, will be incidental.

With the state out of the picture, responsibility for protecting the economies of Winter Harbor and Gouldsboro will depend partly on details of congressional legislation now being drafted and the resourcefulness of local town leaders. A new research center will not by itself close the economic gap.