HARPSWELL — The gap between rich and poor grew in Maine during the 1990s and reached its widest in this seaside community, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data released today.
New information from the ''long form'' mailed to one of every six U.S. households indicates that income disparity grew 5.8 percent in Maine as a whole. The gap grew in 14 of Maine's 16 counties, was virtually unchanged in Knox County and narrowed 3 percent in Waldo County.
There was no clear pattern to account for the largest gaps between rich and poor. The Maine communities with the biggest disparities were diverse and geographically farflung.
They include the picturesque village of Damariscotta, the northern Aroostook County college town of Fort Kent, and Waterville and Lewiston, blue-collar cities where the mills have largely disappeared.
Harpswell had the largest income gap among Maine communities with populations of at least 1,000. The gap grew 27.4 percent from 1990 to 2000.
An influx of retirees who bought property accounted for the higher income group, and longtime residents, many of them self-employed, tended to have lower incomes, said George Swallow, Board of Selectmen chairman.
Lobstermen and other people who have made a living from the ocean have long lived in Harpswell, which covers two narrow peninsulas that jut into Casco Bay. Now they count residents who hail from New York, California, Arizona, Texas and elsewhere in New England among their neighbors.
Demand for shorefront property has driven prices well beyond the means of many locals — sometimes more than $1 million for less than an acre, Swallow said. Meanwhile, tidy clapboard and shingle houses make up the bulk of the homes on the leafy main road. Ramshackle ones pop up infrequently, and there's also an occasional mobile home.
John Gilliam, a carpenter and lifelong Harpswell resident, said those who felt the tightest pinch with the increasing property taxes have already moved away.
''Everybody needs a place to live,'' Gilliam said over hot chocolate in Morse's Store, a local hangout. ''But I have had a narrow-minded thought or two. I guess I feel like I know how the Indians felt.''
Bill Blood, a former high school teacher who now owns a mooring service, said the influx of newcomers has helped triple business in the past five years. It also means he has put his land up for sale because he can foresee the day that it will be difficult to pay his property taxes.
''I can see the handwriting on the wall,'' Blood said. ''I'm stepping away from the shore so I can afford to stay in Harpswell.''
In Fort Kent, a fair portion of the 4,200 residents work at the University of Maine campus or at the hospital, said Don Guimond, the town manager.
''At the other end of the spectrum, we have Kent, Inc. — clothing manufacturing — which has lower wages, and probably we don't have a lot of employers in the middle,'' Guimond said.
The university has the equivalent of about 1,000 full-time students, which is also likely to increase the income gap of Fort Kent, Guimond said.
The same trend may help explain why other communities with colleges, including Unity, Orono, Waterville and Lewiston, have some of the largest income gaps in Maine.
Selectman Marvin Lister was surprised to hear that income disparity was wide in Corinna, a rural town where the gap grew 20 percent in the 1990s.
The ''have-nots'' in this case are likely people who worked at the Eastland Woolen Mill, which closed in 1996, Lister said.
The former mill has since been declared a Superfund site, shops and other businesses have disappeared, and the town is not what it once was, he explained.
''The 'haves' that you're talking about, I don't know that they have that much,'' he said. The few people with money probably made good financial decisions over the years and have seen their investments grow, he said.
The Associated Press used a method to calculate income disparity levels that is used by economists. The ''Gini coefficient'' measures the mathematical deviation from perfectly equal distribution of income.
It was not possible to determine how Maine compared to other states because the Census Bureau has not released the data for all the states.
