Boatline Meets Amid Turmoil

SSA Board Meets for First Time Since Nantucket's Decision to
Explore Secession from Authority

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

Steamship Authority news has been dominated by power and politics in
recent weeks, but when the boat line board of governors convenes for its
monthly meeting this Thursday morning, much of the discussion is
expected to center on rules - new rules for dogs, old rules for
excursion travel and some rules that are top secret in the name of
national security.

The February SSA meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. in the Candle Room at
the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole.

It marks the first board meeting since the people of Nantucket voted
two weeks ago to launch a formal study aimed at possibly developing an
independent boat line for their island.

Tensions are running high, with SSA governors exchanging barbed
remarks in the local and regional print press, and friction over the
growing rift with Nantucket is expected to color the meeting this week.

New business on deck includes a freshly drafted set of security
measures for ferries, including a rule that will bar people from staying
in their cars during travel between the two Islands and the mainland.

The new rule is slated to take effect March 1.

Staying below decks in the car during the 45-minute ride between the
Vineyard and Woods Hole is a well-settled practice among Island
residents.

But SSA chief executive officer Fred C. Raskin said this week that
people will simply need to change their ways.

"I understand that it is a short run and it is easier to stay
in the car, but this country is facing a security issue and this seems
to be a rather nominal sacrifice to help secure the vessel," said
Steamship Authority chief executive officer Fred C. Raskin this week.
"How do you measure safety against comfort? This is not the same
world that it was two years ago," he added.

The rules were drafted by Thomas Creighton, a former state police
lieutenant who was recently hired as the director of security for the
boat line.

Other rules under the new policy include:

* Only baggage carried by ticketed passengers will be allowed
on the luggage carts.

* Passengers will be checked for identification on a random
basis.

* Once on board, passengers will not be allowed to leave the
ferry until it has reached its final destination.

Mr. Raskin said the security measures are aimed at bringing the boat
line into compliance with a new federal maritime security law. The rules
must pass muster with the Coast Guard.

"The law says you've got to treat your security plan as
if you are a prime target. Since cars are frequently used as a vehicle
of destruction, we are being told to get people away from their cars
- we're going to try that and we're going to enforce
that," Mr. Raskin said.

Discussion about the new security rules will take place in executive
session on Thursday; for security reasons, Mr. Raskin would not say
whether a vote by the board is required on the new rules.

"I am not going to answer that - this is a matter of
security and we don't have to make anything public other than the
procedures we are asking the public to adhere to," he said.

Also up for discussion Thursday is a request from county officials
on the Vineyard to suspend a new policy that eliminates the use of
excursion fares for government groups.

The new policy came under fire at a recent meeting of the Dukes
County commission.

The policy was voted on by the boat line board in November and went
into effect Jan. 1, the beginning of the SSA fiscal year.

But county officials said no one was told about the new fare
structure, which has hit towns and county government midway through
their fiscal years. There is no extra money in the budget to pay for
added travel expenses, county officials said.

The new policy was intended to cut down on abuse of the excursion
fares and also to pare down the number of users, because the boat line
loses money on the cut-rate fares.

Towns and counties are still allowed to use half-price vouchers for
official travel, but the vouchers must now be applied to full fares
instead of the low-cost excursion fares.

Last month county officials asked Vineyard boat line governor
Kathryn A. Roessel to take steps either to delay the effective start
date for the new policy until July 1, the start of the new fiscal year,
or to eliminate it altogether.

Yesterday Mr. Raskin said management will recommend a delay until
July 1.

"This is not a big budget item," he said.

Mr. Raskin said he expects the board will also return to the
on-again, off-again discussion about whether to allow people to bring
their dogs on the Flying Cloud, the high-speed passenger ferry that runs
between Hyannis and Nantucket.

Dogs are currently not allowed on the Flying Cloud. Dogs are allowed
on the conventional SSA ferries and they are also allowed on the Grey
Lady, the high-speed passenger ferry owned by Hy-Line Cruises.

The canine issue has been one more sore point for the people of
Nantucket, who are now in open revolt over a long list of complaints
about the SSA.

The Nantucket feasibility study about splitting the boat line in two
is now officially under way. The study is privately funded and will be
led by a group of 10 people. Yesterday the names of the group were
reported in the Inquirer and Mirror, the newspaper of record on
Nantucket. Seven members of the group are freight-haulers: Dennis Eagan
of Sun Transport, Denis Gazaille of Marine Home Center, Nat Lowell of
Yates Gas, Myles Reis Jr. of Reis Trucking, Tony Shepley of Shepley Wood
Products, John Stackpole of Harbor Fuel and Phil Read, owner of the
Jared Coffin House. Mr. Read is also a former boat line governor.

The other three members of the group are Nantucket SSA governor
Grace Grossman, port council member Flint Ranney and Tom Kiley, a
prominent Boston attorney who is a partner at Cosgrove, Eisenberg and
Kiley. Mr. Kiley also worked as a first assistant attorney general under
Massachusetts Attorney General Francis X. Bellotti.