An update from Amy Lockwood, Executive Director, and Brad Greeley, President

The Star Island Corporation profoundly regrets to announce that it expects Star Island to be closed through early August until further assessment of its electrical systems and mandated work are completed for fire safety purposes. Star Island expects to open fully in early August for the remainder of its normal conference schedule.

If you have concerns regarding a conference scheduled during this time period, please contact your conference chair. Conference leadership contact information is listed on the Conference Calendar page on our website, or in your Blue Book. Alternatively you may call the Star Island Corporation office at (603) 430-6272 so our staff can assist you.

The Star Island board and staff sincerely regret the difficulties being caused by this temporary situation. Those familiar with Star Island’s history are aware of the legacy of communities which have successfully weathered the challenges of survival in our remote New England island setting. We are confident that this community will do the same, and we look forward to opening in August in a better and safer position than the island has seen before.

An update from Amy Lockwood, Executive Director, and Brad Greeley, President

As anticipated, Star Island Corporation has been preparing for a facility inspection on Thursday, June 21. In the course of these preparations there was some fairly in-depth research and assessment needed of progress on our hotel electrical systems. We were pleased to learn that a contracted electrical engineer who has inspected the facility today was pleased with the progress that has been made on bringing the 130 year old building up to code. As always there is a great deal to do to assure the safety of our conferees and each phase of our work is an element in arriving at the goal.

Unfortunately the time needed to conduct this assessment delayed our fire inspection. We now hope that inspection will come early next week, and we will be open for conferences no later than the middle of the week.

We will look forward to welcoming the Natural History Conference, which focuses it study and discussion on aspects of the natural environment of the Islands and issues of stewardship and living a religious life. YRUU has been welcomed by Ferry Beach in Maine, which will allow them to preserve the full week experience together. A third conference, the Isles of Shoals Historic Research Association (ISHRA) has canceled its summer conference (although will keep its annual fall conference), and all ISHRA conferees are invited to attend as NHC conferees and enjoy that conference’s programs.

We continue to be deeply grateful to the Shoals Marine Lab on Appledore Island. They have been in close touch and strongly supportive of our staff as we have worked to complete the necessary improvements.

CONTACTS:
Affected ISHRA Conferees: Amy Cook, registrar, ptilota@yahoo.com or (603) 440-8010
Affected YRUU Conferees: Rebecca D. Hutton, registrar, rebeccadhutton@gmail.com or (617) 605-4380
Affected NHC Conferees: Kim Reef, registrar, kimreef@hotmail.com or (978) 362-1149

Offers of volunteer assistance: Irene Bush, volunteer coordinator, ibush@patmedia.net or (603) 433-9146

All other questions, including press inquiries: Amy Lockwood, alockwood@starisland.org or (603) 817-8694; Brad Greeley, board@starisland.org or (603) 430-0969