Boat Line Eyes Rate Increases

Preliminary Budget Unveiled; New Fee Hikes Are Proposed for All
Parking Permits and Hazardous Trips

By CHRIS BURRELL

Despite rising fuel costs and lagging car traffic on Steamship
Authority ferries, the boat line leadership still plans to hold the line
next year on ticket rates for cars and walk-on passengers.

In other words, no fare hikes. The cost to park your car in a
mainland lot, however, is another story.

SSA acting general manager and treasurer Wayne Lamson proposed
raising the parking rates in the mainland lots by as much as 36 per cent
beginning next calendar year.

Permit holders for the Woods Hole lot could see their annual fees
jump from $550 to $750 a year. Daily rates could go from $6 to $8 in the
winter and from $10 to $12 a day in the summer, according to next
year's preliminary budget. The draft budget was presented to SSA
governors at their monthly meeting, held at the Katharine Cornell
Theatre in Vineyard Haven yesterday.

"Parking fees haven't changed since 1998," Mr.
Lamson said.

That detail might not matter to Islanders who keep a car on the
other side.

"That increase is outrageous. The majority of permit parkers
are year-round residents of Martha's Vineyard, working
people," said Dukes County commissioner Robert Sawyer, who is a
longtime permit holder himself.

Carriers of hazardous materials - including gasoline and fuel
oil - can expect a 20 per cent rate hike next year, if the budget
is approved as presented.

The boat line board will vote next month on the nearly $63 million
budget unveiled this week. The increase over this year's budget is
just 1.3 per cent.

Mr. Lamson's preliminary budget revolved around projects aimed
at trimming costs and raising revenues at the boat line. Modifications
of the two freight boats, the Gay Head and the Katama, for example, will
boost the truck-carrying capacity and reduce the number of daily trips.

Widening the decks of the two freight boats by 12 feet will cost the
SSA $1.6 million but will save more than $500,000 next year alone,
according to budget projections.

"Instead of six to seven trips a day, we can go to five with
the same capacity," said Carl Walker, the SSA director of
engineering and maintenance.

Asked whether the wider decks would affect boat stability, Mr.
Walker said they would only slightly increase the rolling effect of the
freight boats.

"Freight boats are like barges, very stiff," he said.
"Their stability does not change in any way."

As for another ferry in the fleet - the beleaguered Flying
Cloud - the prognosis was a little more troubling. Built four
years ago at a cost of $8 million, the high-speed passenger ferry that
serves Nantucket is already being eyed for replacement after years of
mechanical troubles.

Mr. Walker said he needed a vote from SSA governors by next month to
approve a $10 million replacement for the Flying Cloud, but the plans
quickly ran aground.

Vineyard SSA governor Kathryn A. Roessel fired the first shot,
pointing out that replacing the Flying Cloud by 2006 coincided with the
scheduled replacement of the ferry Islander - a $22.5 million
project.

"You may be stretched pretty thin," she said to Mr.
Walker.

Then turning to Nantucket governor Flint Ranney, Ms. Roessel issued
her next objection, saying she will not support spending money for a new
high-speed ferry unless Nantucketers affirm their decision to remain
part of the boat line.

Last spring, news surfaced of the late Nantucket governor Grace
Grossman's efforts to explore splitting the boat line into two
separate entities.

Mr. Ranney said that while he is no longer a member of the committee
on Nantucket studying the feasibility of splitting from the SSA, he
agreed with Ms. Roessel about backing off plans to build a new
high-speed ferry.

"People on Nantucket aren't 100 per cent sure they want
a fast boat from the Steamship Authority," Mr. Ranney said.

But SSA governors from Barnstable and Falmouth weren't so
pleased with the alliance of the two Islands, arguing that the longer
the SSA waits to replace the ailing ferry, the more it will cost the
boat line in maintenance bills.

Next year's budget calls for spending nearly $900,000 on
upkeep for the Flying Cloud.

Talk about spending so much money on ferry boats prompted Oak Bluffs
selectman Roger Wey to raise his hand more than once and remind SSA
leaders about promises of a new terminal in his town.

"Is money for Oak Bluffs still there even after the Islander
and fast ferry?" he asked.

Mr. Walker said the Oak Bluffs terminal project remains on hold
while the SSA tries to answer the concerns that the Oak Bluffs
conservation commission has raised about the project's potential
impact on the waterfront.

"Things are tentative at best," Mr. Walker said.

While yesterday's meeting largely focused on fiscal matters,
Ms. Roessel called for more clarification on SSA safety and rescue
procedures, citing last summer's incident on the Islander during
which a crewman nearly drowned in the midst of a rescue drill.

A United States Coast Guard investigation, which concluded this
week, blamed poor communication between crew and captain aboard the
ferry for the incident.

"Is there a standardized response to emergencies on each
vessel?" Ms. Roessel asked.

Mr. Lamson said quarterly inspections by the Coast Guard review
safety procedures. "Our captains are fully aware of what the
drills and what the crew should be doing," he said.

On a lighter note, Mr. Lamson told the board that he had decided to
revamp at least one part of the telephone system at the boat line.

"We've gone back to a live switchboard operator in
response to a lot of complaints from people not being able to get
through and reach anybody," he said.

SSA governors said they welcomed the change but were surprised to
encounter a human voice rather than a recording.

"I didn't believe she was alive," Mr. Ranney said.