Blacktip Island’s mid-1980s-era pay phone booth was saved from destruction Thursday when a group of community activists protested its removal on the grounds of its place in the small Caribbean island’s cultural heritage. (photo courtesy of Leah Shore)
An impromptu protest by tens of Blacktip Island residents Thursday halted the scheduled removal of the small Caribbean island’s sole remaining public pay phone booth.
“That booth’s part of our heritage, part of our history,” island historian Smithson Atchul said. “Been on the island since before I was born. It’s a neighbor. I made my first prank call from that booth. Asked out my first date from there, too.
“Back in the day, when most folks didn’t have phone lines, they’d line up to use that booth,” Altschul said. “It was part of the glue that held the community together. No, it hasn’t worked in years, but that’s not the point. For Blacktip, it’s an icon. Something to tell our kids stories about.”
Island officials say the proposed removal was part of an island beautification plan.
“That thing’s been rotting there for years. Decades, even,” island mayor Jack Cobia said. “It’s an eyesore, and makes us look like a laughingstock to island visitors. It needs to go so we can embrace the future. If the phone booth stays, what’s next, putting all our old fax machines on display?”
Legal experts say the removal was legally problematic.
“Wanting the booth gone is all well and good, but the question is who has the authority to remove it?” local attorney Harriet Bottoms said. “Technically, it’s still the property of the phone company. Sure, that company went out of business with the rise of cellular communication, but that corporate entity still owns the booth. For the island council to take unilateral action could lead to years of legal proceedings. Which is what the protestors focused on.”
Many locals supported the protest.
“It’s a symbol of Blacktip, like the Eiffel Tower is to Paris, or Big Ben is to London,” protestor Leah Shore said. “Tourists love having their photos taken with it. Tearing it down, hauling it to the dump, does no one any good. And how much would that removal cost? Why not put that money toward something positive?
“Some of us are working on a plan to restore the booth,” Shore said. “We’re going to clean all the corrosion from it, replace the missing glass, and, if we can find one, replace the receiver to give it a like-new look. We may even install external lights to illuminate it at night, and colored LED lights inside. Whether it’s a functional phone is beside the point. This is a matter of community pride.”
The Blacktip Times 