New Bedford Ferry Divides Selectmen

Vineyard Leaders Order SSA Governor to Return for Further
Consultations Before Final Decision on Fast Ferry

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

For the second time in a month, a large group of Vineyard selectmen
this week wavered on the subject of high-speed ferry service out of New
Bedford, asking the Island Steamship Authority governor to meet with
them one more time before he makes any decision on a trial fast ferry
project.

"What I am saying is go ahead and explore the possibility, but
before a final decision is made on a fast ferry - come
back," said Edgartown selectman Fred B. Morgan Jr.

The comment came at a meeting of the All-Island Selectmen's
Association on Wednesday night. The meeting included a wide-ranging
discussion on Steamship Authority issues with Vineyard SSA governor J.B.
Riggs Parker.

At the association meeting last month, the selectmen asked Mr.
Parker to delay any vote on high-speed ferry service until after their
meeting this week.

On Wednesday night, selectmen from every town voted to stand behind
a broadly-drawn, five-point set of recommendations on boat line affairs
adopted early in the summer - but they added an amendment asking
Mr. Parker to come back one more time before he takes any action on a
pilot high-speed program for next year. Mr. Parker said the SSA must
vote on the project at the Oct. 18 board meeting - and the
selectmen's association agreed to call their own special meeting
on Oct. 17.

Selectmen also voted to send letters to the Falmouth and Nantucket
boat line board members, urging them to reconsider their recent vote to
adopt a new cost allocation policy.

"This is reneging on an agreement that they made for
repayment, and that is not right," said Mr. Morgan.

In recent weeks there has been growing disarray among Vineyard
officials over SSA affairs, and Mr. Parker's bitter split with
Nantucket has begun to eclipse nearly every boat line issue. This week
opinion was not unanimous on any of the SSA issues - and there
were some heated moments.

Dukes County commissioner Dan Flynn walked out in a huff before any
votes were taken. And tempers flared briefly between county commissioner
Leonard Jason Jr. and Mr. Morgan over whether Mr. Parker should return
to the selectmen on the fast ferry project.

Mr. Morgan had proposed the more cautious route on the fast ferry
project; Mr. Jason voted against it.

"I don't understand you, Lenny," Mr. Morgan said.

"What's to understand - we voted to do something
earlier and now we are going back on it," Mr. Jason shot back.

"We're not going back on anything - all we are
saying is, ‘Come back because we want to know what the hell you
are going to do,' " Mr. Morgan said.

Mr. Parker said he is no longer confident that he can persuade the
boat line board to adopt his vision for expanded ferry service out of
New Bedford.

"As you know, Nantucket is unalterably opposed to any change,
and I am not at all sure where Falmouth is after last week. I am not
sanguine about the result, I have to tell you," Mr. Parker said.

At the monthly SSA meeting last week the board of governors voted
2-1 to eliminate a four-year-old policy designed to
"recapture" some $7 million in revenues through rate
increases on the Nantucket run. In a change that was recommended by boat
line treasurer and acting general manager Wayne Lamson, the old policy
was replaced with a policy that would have a more moderate effect on
Nantucket rates.

Mr. Parker lost the vote, and throughout this week he lobbied
Vineyard public officials to rally against the decision. The cost
allocation policy is complicated, even when reduced to its simplest
terms.

Mr. Lamson said yesterday that if the policy had not been changed, a
$3 million rate increase for the coming year would have fallen almost
entirely on the Nantucket run.

"Nobody really saw what the impact would be. It's
hindsight now, but if I had foreseen this I would have made some changes
at the time," Mr. Lamson said.

Mr. Lamson said he believes it would be unwise to return to the old
policy. "All I can see that doing is creating huge fights in the
future - already now it is getting in the way of so many other
things we are doing," he said.

In an opinion piece published in both Island newspapers this week,
Mr. Parker lashed out at Nantucket for lobbying to eliminate the policy.

"The Nantucket member, Mrs. Grossman, has agitated for its
elimination," Mr. Parker wrote.

In fact the policy change was proposed by Mr. Lamson.

Yesterday Mr. Lamson released a detailed analysis of operating
revenues and allocations by route.

At the selectmen's meeting this week, Mr. Parker reiterated
many statements he has made in other public forums in recent weeks,
promoting the fast ferry project out of New Bedford as a way to cut down
on car traffic coming to the Vineyard, open up more car space for Island
residents and reduce fares.

He pointed to the Nantucket fast ferry project as an ideal model,
and he said the Nantucket experience shows high-speed ferry service will
not bring more visitors to the Vineyard. "People have said
it's going to bring more people total - we don't have
any facts to suggest that," Mr. Parker said. He did not mention a
boat line management report that says the New Bedford high-speed ferry
project must bring some 200,000 more visitors to the Vineyard in order
to break even.

He repeated that the Vineyard needs New Bedford.

"I think we need New Bedford. I think we should work with them
and negotiate with them and try to manage the situation so it works for
us. I am in the process of trying to do this," Mr. Parker said.

At the outset, West Tisbury selectman Cynthia Mitchell restated the
five-point set of recommendations adopted by the selectmen in June, and
gave a book report of sorts on other discussions that have taken place,
including a discussion at a Martha's Vineyard Commission meeting
two weeks ago.

Ms. Mitchell did not attend the MVC meeting, but she had distilled a
23-point list of issues from the minutes of the meeting.

There were questions, many of them centered on the fast ferry.

"I don't know why we are so wedded to this fast ferry
- and I don't feel that there are very many people in our
community who are for a fast ferry," said Tisbury selectman
Tristan Israel.

The five-point list adopted again by the selectmen is an expression
of support for the following:

* A general exploratory approach to SSA issues.

* Replacement of the ferry Islander as a top priority.

* Using an Authority freight vessel on the New Bedford run.

* Moving the early morning hazardous freight run from Woods
Hole to New Bedford.

* Exploring a lease arrangement for a trial high-speed ferry
project.

Mr. Parker told the selectmen that he is in favor of using an
Authority freight boat on the New Bedford run, even though he voted with
the rest of the board last week to put out a request for proposals (RFP)
for private carriers. One private carrier has made a verbal offer to the
boat line to run freight service at no cost to the SSA, but Mr. Parker
said the proposal will likely cause too much disruption in the
reservation system.

"It is time for us to do it," Mr. Parker said.
"Absent some extraordinary proposal put to us through this RFP
process, I think we should go ahead with the Steamship Authority
boats," he concluded.