Group aims to save children’s camp University of Maine System looking to sell Greenland Point Center

PRINCETON – Greenland Point Center has existed to serve children and education, and some local folks are wondering why the University of Maine System would want to sell the facility to a developer.

University officials said that although several entities looked at purchasing the property, only one person made an offer.

John Diamond, the university’s executive director of external affairs, said because they still were in the middle of negotiations it would be inappropriate for him to reveal the identity of the buyer or the amount offered.

Jon Speed, president of the Greenland Point Coalition, a group interested in purchasing the property and continuing to operate Greenland Point as a camp for children, said he was optimistic that they could reach an agreement with either the university or the developer.

Greenland Point is located on a 64-acre peninsula on Long Lake. Of that, 32 acres is owned by the University of Maine System. The rest is leased from Wagner Land Management. There are eight log cabins and three stick-built cabins and a main lodge that has a dining room, kitchen and library.

“When Greenland Point Center staff developed and implemented programs in the early ’80s, a strong emphasis from the University of Maine at Machias was on public service with educational opportunities for youth of all ages,” Jo-Ellen Harvey of Owls Head said in a letter to the Legislature. Harvey worked at the University of Maine at Machias and the Greenland Point Center for more than 15 years.

She said the facility has been used as a conservation camp and for outdoor school and youth at-risk programs. In the winter of 1998, the Winter Conservation Camp began.

State and federal dollars augmented some of the programs. Then in the late ’90s, the economy began to go south and the camp faced economic problems.

Diamond said the University of Maine at Machias had managed the property for several years. “UMM doesn’t have any current or future plans to use the property and it can’t afford to continue to maintain it,” he said. “So last year, UMM asked the trustees to sell the property so that the proceeds could be used by UMM for other purposes.”

Speed said members of his group asked the governor’s office for help because they wanted to buy the property. Staffers there told them to put together a master plan, which they did. They mounted a campaign to raise the more than $500,000 asking price. They developed an action plan and mission statement and set up a board of officers.

“We filed for incorporation,” Speed said.

State and federal agencies offered to put up the funds.

Speed said the coalition’s short-term plan calls for reopening the Greenland Point Outdoor Adventures Camps. The group would like eventually to offer hostelry programs for the elderly, business retreats and winter sports activities. “We want to project the idea that we still would like to have the university work with us, along with the governor’s office, to see if there is some kind of resolution here,” Speed said.

Rick Scribner, past director of Greenland Point and associate professor of UMM’s Recreation Management, said that several former Greenland Point campers are students at the college. “Greenland Point has done a lot of good for kids and college people,” he said. “It’s been an all-around good institution.”

Members of the Passamaquoddy Tribe are planning a Ceremony of Hope for 1 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 3, at Greenland Point. The ceremony will signify the tribe’s hope that the land at Green Point will be turned over to the Greenland Point Coalition.

Members of the tribe plan to paddle across Long Lake to Greenland Point for the ceremony. A feast will be held afterward at the Princeton Rod and Gun Club. The public is invited.