A selling job. Pitching the fast ferry. This is the main melody
these days at the Steamship Authority, where management activities have
spun into overdrive on the ambitious new service model that has been
under discussion in all the port communities for the last five months.
Special Task Force Headed By Retired Judge Rudolph Kass Begins Deliberations on Future Boat Line in New Bedford
By JULIA WELLS
A special state task force charged with studying ferry and
transportation problems on the Cape and Islands will hold a set of
public hearings beginning next week in New Bedford, and continuing
through the month of February on Nantucket, Cape Cod and Martha's
Vineyard.
In a 2-1 vote that left Vineyard Steamship Authority governor J.B.
Riggs Parker visibly seething, the SSA board yesterday killed a trial
high-speed ferry project between New Bedford and the Vineyard that would
have cost $10 million over the next three years.
"A $10 million investment over three years with no market
study? This is not the right deal or the right time," said
Falmouth SSA governor Galen Robbins.
When Steven McCormick was a law student, he asked a professor
to explain the exact meaning of the word perpetuity. The law
professor's reply to the young student was simple and direct. "It
means forever - and a day," the professor said.
Forever and a day is exactly how long the farm fields will
now be preserved at the Herring Creek Farm in Edgartown, and on the
Vineyard this week Mr.
Amid a proliferation of applications for permanent piers, a new
district of critical planning concern (DCPC) has now been proposed for
the shorelines of two shellfish-rich ponds in the town of Chilmark.
Last week the Martha's Vineyard Commission voted to nominate
the Menemsha and Nashaquitsa Ponds as a DCPC on the Chilmark side.
The impact of bringing more summer visitors to the Vineyard using
high-speed ferry service from New Bedford, the tricky practice of
carrying fuel on the boats, and the role that the public boat line plays
in the lives of Islanders - these were all subjects for discussion
at the Martha's Vineyard Commission last week.
The idea is not new. Dr. Milton Mazer had it some 30 years ago when he did his paradigm social psychology study on the Island that resulted in the book People and Predicaments. Dr. Felton Earls had it a few years later, when he launched a long-term study of how Island children handle stress.
Amid a long list of caveats about assumptions and the need for more data, Steamship Authority treasurer Wayne Lamson told the boat line board of governors yesterday that he is in the neutral zone when it comes to the financial impacts of the new service model for future ferry operations to the two Islands.
"I feel that we should continue to explore the viability of the service model. But a lot more information needs to be gathered, and certain assumptions need to be validated," Mr. Lamson said at the monthly boat line meeting in Woods Hole yesterday.
County Commissioners Face Decision On Three-Year Appointment to SSA
By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer
The Dukes County Commission faces a crucial battle this week that
will set the course for Island policy at the Steamship Authority in the
years ahead, as it prepares to appoint a Vineyard boat line governor at
a special meeting Wednesday night.
The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the community room of the Oak Bluffs
School.
Overall traffic on Steamship Authority ferries is either flat or down slightly for the year, but in fact peak-season summer traffic on ferries to the Vineyard - both passenger and automobile traffic - has been healthy.
Also, the patchwork of parking lots in Falmouth and Bourne that are used to service boat line ferries to the Vineyard were never completely filled this summer, raising some question about the recent statements by the boat line general manager about the need to shift passenger traffic to New Bedford.
