After more than a decade of planning and almost three years of construction, the Steamship Authority’s new Oak Bluffs terminal was officially opened on Wednesday, just in time for the start of the boat line’s seasonal service.
The chairman of the Oak Bluffs selectmen, Duncan Ross, flanked by the SSA’s general manager, Wayne Lamson and Martha’s Vineyard’s representative on the SSA board of governors, Marc Hanover, cut a red ribbon strung across the front door of the new building.
The Steamship Authority is on track to finish a difficult year in reasonably good financial shape, the last board meeting of 2009 was told last week.
As of the end of October, the boat line’s net operating income was almost $12 million, some $2.8 million better than forecast.
The monthly business summary continued the good-in-parts trend of recent months: revenues were sharply down, but so were costs.
The knock-on effects of the financial crisis continue to manifest themselves in diverse and unforeseen ways. This week they paralyzed the board of governors of the Steamship Authority and forced them to the cost and bother of having to convene a special meeting.
To explain, you must start with one of the giant casualties of the crisis, Bank of America.
You will recall that this bank got into deep trouble a year or so back, first because of sub-prime mortgages and then because of its shotgun marriage to the even-more-troubled Merrill Lynch.
If you happened to be in Oak Bluffs on Tuesday and were surprised to see the Steamship Authority terminal building in the process of being flattened, you were not alone. Also surprised, and dismayed, were town officials.
For the SSA did not have the town’s permission to do it. The conservation commission had issued an order permitting the renovation and expansion of the existing structure, not the demolition of it.
The Steamship Authority foresees another tough economic year ahead, with its 2010 preliminary draft budget projecting a further decrease in operating revenue.
The draft, presented at Tuesday’s meeting of the board of governors on Nantucket, expects passenger revenues to decline 2.1 per cent and freight revenue to fall 4.6 per cent.
Even when offset by an expected 11.4 per cent rise in rent revenue from barge operations, the overall decline is expected to be 2.1 per cent. Total operating revenue is expected to be just over $81 million.
Uncle Sam and the SSA
The federal government sometimes provides better entertainment than late night television.
Case in point is the Steamship Authority and the latest snafu over the use of federal stimulus money earmarked for reconstruction work on the ferry terminals in Oak Bluffs and Hyannis.
First comes the problem with the material used for the dolphins on the Hyannis project. Turns out that some of the material is made in China and the rules for stimulus money require that all steel be made in the USA.
