The coldest weather in years has the Vineyard in a deep freeze.
Night temperatures have dropped into single digits and afternoon highs
have stayed below freezing every day this week but one. Edgartown and
Oak Bluffs harbors are locked up in ice.
A proposal by the Steamship Authority to close down the Oak Bluffs
terminal at the end of September instead of mid-October has stirred up
protest from business leaders in town.
Three months after an accident that nearly claimed the life of one
of its employees during a routine training exercise, the Steamship
Authority is refusing to release the results of its own internal
investigation into the mishap.
Traffic was down, but parking tickets were up. The weather was changeable; ditto for the restaurant and retail business. The wild blueberries were not so hot, but the fishing was great - lots of big bass and small bluefish, and on the full moon in July the fluke were so thick in some places you could practically throw out an old shoe and catch one.
These are the benchmarks of the summer of 2003, and as the official summer season came to a close this week, the people of the Vineyard took a quick look back, and most could agree on two things:
Traffic is down, revenues are down, there's an economic downturn going on and the weather has been awful.
As a result of all this, the Steamship Authority will begin to sell advertising space on the ferries and in the boat line terminals to pick up some extra cash.
Boat line managers also said yesterday that they will continue to pursue a plan to change the winter ferry schedule on the Vineyard run as a way to save some money.
Business Leaders Want to Say: Boat Reservations Are a Mess
By ALEXIS TONTI
The Steamship Authority vehicle reservation system is broken.
That was the take-home message this week at a forum that started as
a focused debate about the boat line's new guaranteed standby
policy and expanded to a broad indictment of the way the SSA books
passengers.
The forum, hosted by the Dukes County Commission, was held Wednesday
at the Vineyard Transit Authority administration building.
Passenger and Car Fares Stay the Same But Commuters, Truckers,
Schools All Can Expect Sharp Increases
HYANNIS - Vineyard residents will shoulder the bulk of next
year's rate increases, which were unanimously approved by
Steamship Authority governors at their monthly meeting in Hyannis on
Wednesday.
In spite of a tumultuous first three years as Vineyard Steamship
Authority governor, Kathryn A. Roessel wants more.
On Wednesday Ms. Roessel submitted a letter to the Dukes County
commissioners, formally seeking reappointment to the high-profile
volunteer position. Her current three-year term expires at the end of
the December.
With a contract that expired more than a year ago and no real end in sight at the bargaining table, tension has begun to escalate between management and vessel workers at the Steamship Authority.
Union workers picketed SSA terminals on both sides of the sound over Memorial Day weekend, waving signs that put the spotlight on a simmering and now long-running dispute over manning levels, wages and retirement benefits.
SSA Management Sets a Course for Collision on Security Measures
By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer
Turning a deaf ear on the growing uproar among Islanders over a
controversial new policy that will bar people from staying in their cars
on board ferries, senior managers at the Steamship Authority announced
flatly this week that the policy is expected to go into effect sometime
later this month.
