How Two Islands View Boat Line

It Threatens to Become an Issue: Nantucket Is Feeling Isolated,
After Long Run of Unity with the Vineyard

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

Fresh fault lines at the Steamship Authority these days may threaten
to undermine the traditional bedrock of unity between the Vineyard and
Nantucket.

The 43-year-old public boat line is chartered to provide dependable
year-round ferry service to the two Islands.

But much has changed at the SSA in the last year, from an overhaul
of its enabling legislation and a change to a five-member board after
three years of hostile politics with New Bedford, to the hiring of a new
chief executive officer.

Today, with CEO Fred Raskin just 14 months into a six-year contract
and with the June meeting of the boat line set for next Thursday on the
Vineyard, there are new questions about direction.

Is the SSA adrift, no longer in touch with its core mission, plagued
by poor customer relations and dominated by the emerging New Bedford
agenda, or is it moving forward with a new set of goals and objectives?

The view is different, depending on which Island is your perch.

On Nantucket, the leading spokesmen for the boat line say they have
been cut out of the loop, isolated from day-to-day affairs and neglected
by management.

On the Vineyard there has been a buzz of activity around a laundry
list of issues large and small, from a series of public forums on the
design for a new ferry to replace the venerable Islander, to a meeting
last night on a complicated and little-publicized plan to change the
winter schedule. Here SSA issues bubble to the surface for a short
period of time, and then disappear into the drink again, sometimes with
no outcome or conclusion.

Both Island boat line governors agree on one subject: New Bedford
has fairly dominated the agenda in the last year.

"It's all about New Bedford - I think we are in a
very precarious position on the Islands and we could be gobbled
up," said Nantucket governor and board chairman Grace Grossman.

"The Steamship Authority's share of Island attention has
been focused primarily on possible high-speed service to New
Bedford," said Vineyard boat line governor Kathryn A. Roessel in a
commentary piece published in newspapers here last week.

Management has spent many months working on a plan to hire a private
company to run high-speed ferry service between New Bedford and the
Vineyard next summer.

Today the tension between boat line management and Nantucket is
evident on both sides of the sound.

Mr. Raskin denied that New Bedford has dominated the agenda.

"New Bedford hasn't occupied my time at all -
what's occupied my time is putting a lot of effort into the
periphery of issues that mean things to the Vineyard," he said,
adding: "All these things take time and, frankly, Grace
doesn't ask management here to do anything. There isn't the
contact there," he said.

"It's so simple - the mission is to take care of
the Islands. But I think that the vision and the mission have been
abandoned and it seems that nobody understands what we're all
about anymore," said Mrs. Grossman.

"I think we are just being kind of ignored," declared
Flint Ranney, the Nantucket member of the port council, a 7-member
advisory board that replaced the old financial advisory board under the
new enabling legislation.

Mr. Ranney reiterated a list of concerns he raised at last
month's boat line meeting about poor maintenance on the ferry
Eagle.

"The Eagle has not been very well maintained. It has just
recently come out of dry dock and already it looks shabby, the paint is
peeling, there is rust showing and there are mechanical problems with
the bow door," he said.

The problems were compounded early this month when it was discovered
that the Eagle had dropped one of its 2,500-pound rudders en route from
Hyannis to Nantucket.

More problems popped up on the Nantucket run recently when some
passengers traveling on the ferry with their dogs were suddenly told
that they had to stay on the freight deck or the mezzanine deck. Mr.
Ranney said the policy about people and their dogs surfaced without
warning, and Nantucket residents, who frequently travel with their
labradors, golden retrievers and terriers in tow, were relegated below
decks.

"If somebody is bringing a dog, why do they have to be hassled
and sent to a place on the boat where it is cold and windy and
dirty?" Mr. Ranney said.

There is no such policy about dogs on the Vineyard run, and
evidently the rule on the Nantucket run was short-lived.

Mr. Raskin said it was all a misunderstanding.

"I think the crews started to enforce an old policy but when I
learned of it I stopped it," he said.

But the public relations damage was done.

"This person that I spoke to who had his dog and was told he
could not have it on the main deck - he went over to the Hy-Line,
where they not only welcomed him but they gave the dog a biscuit,"
Mr. Ranney said. "It's things like this that drive
passengers to the Hy-Line and the airline," he added.

"I think we are losing ridership because of our dictatorial
policies," Mrs. Grossman said.

Mr. Raskin defended the boat line agenda and denied that Nantucket
is in any way neglected, although he sidestepped questions about how
many times he has visited Nantucket since he became CEO. "I have
been on all the boats," he said.

"He's been here about four times," said Mr.
Ranney. "I know it's a pain to get to Nantucket but
we're 40 per cent of the business and 40 per cent of the revenue.
I know New Bedford feels they should get some attention, but this boat
line is for the Islands, it's not for New Bedford."

Mr. Raskin had sharp-edged remarks about Mrs. Grossman.

"Issues are communicated, but Grace chooses not to discuss
them with me," he said, adding: "Grace had problems with the
previous manager and she's going to have problems with the next
manager - she chooses to gripe to rather than to work with
me."

Ms. Roessel chose her words more carefully.

"Isolated? Yes, I'm not surprised that Nantucket is
feeling isolated, but communication is a two-way street and I think the
Nantucket representatives, if they search their souls, might conclude
that there's a lot they could do to improve the general
atmosphere," she said.

Ms. Roessel admitted there have been problems.

"There are a lot of areas in which the Steamship Authority can
improve - customer relations, maintenance and trying to address
some of the issues that need to be addressed to keep our fares from
going up," she said.

She returned again to what she termed the New Bedford distraction.

"As we all know we've been in large part distracted from
moving forward on those fronts by extraneous issues having nothing to do
with our core business that take on a life of their own and consume the
board and the staff's time and energy. I think we're
beginning to move slowly in the right direction toward addressing our
true goals and objectives. But we won't pick up steam until we put
the New Bedford issue behind us, until we forge a new working unit out
of a five-person board that used to be a three-person board."

Mr. Raskin questioned whether the Nantucket representatives really
represent Nantucket.

"I think this is just the perception of Grace and Flint
- I don't get any calls from Nantucket people who say they
are unhappy," he said, adding: "I've said, ‘Let
me know what you want to accomplish on Nantucket,' and I've
gotten no response."

Mr. Ranney had another view.

"Most of my communications with management have been
ignored," he said.

Mr. Raskin appeared to be stung by Mr. Ranney's decision to
raise concerns about maintenance problems at the boat line meeting last
month.

"I was surprised that Flint raised issues at the last board
meeting - if he was really concerned about resolving them, I
would have expected him to give me a call ahead of time," he said,
adding:

"I am suggesting that these people are not solely concerned
with some rust on the Eagle."

But Mr. Ranney said it is in fact that simple.

"Nantucketers would like to be able to just get on the boat
and go to Hyannis and come back. I would like management to pay more
attention to the Nantucket run and find out what the problems are and
correct them. They're correctable, most of them, and they should
pay attention to the maintenance of the vessels," he said.

Ms. Roessel said she remains committed to preserving unity between
the Vineyard and Nantucket, as well as Island control of the board,
which comes through a weighted vote.

"I believe in the Islands speaking together. It's a
different dynamic with the weighted voting and the expanded board, but
it's still really key and more important than ever for the Islands
to stick together and for each Island member to continue to support the
other Island member on her specific issues," she said.

She concluded:

"We really do care about Nantucket service and we all wish
that our dialogue with the Nantucket representatives was more
productive. It's a two-way thing, but with great power comes great
responsibility."