The people of Chappaquiddick may have declared an uneasy
truce in their recent war of words over whether to enact a
district of critical planning concern, but this week there was
an army on the move on the small island at the extreme eastern
end of Edgartown - and it had nothing to do with building
moratoriums or long-range planning.
It was an army of worms - in fact an army of army worms -
and at Pimpneymouse Farm they had just finished plundering a
large hayfield on the southwest corner of the farm.
For the Vineyard it means expanded ferry service using high speed
travel from the port of New Bedford and no new double-ended ferry to
replace the beloved Islander.
For Nantucket it means replacing three familiar old ferries with one
new multi-purpose high-speed ferry whose design has never before been
tested in this country.
A bitterly divided Dukes County Commission shuffled the power
structure of the Steamship Authority governing board this week in a
surprise vote to replace J.B. Riggs Parker, the embattled Vineyard boat
line governor. The majority of the commission turned instead to a
newcomer to the Vineyard political scene - Kathryn A. Roessel, a
Tisbury resident and retired attorney.
Island Leaders Act to Block Decisions on Fast Ferry Service to New
Bedford
By JULIA WELLS and JOSHUA SABATINI
In an unexpected move that marks a new turn in the road for the
Steamship Authority, the All-Island Selectmen's Association voted
without dissent this week to tell the Vineyard boat line governor to put
the brakes on plans for high-speed ferry service between New Bedford and
the Vineyard.
A small circle of senior managers at the Steamship Authority last
week quietly filed an application for some $2 million in federal grant
money to help launch an $8 million high-speed passenger ferry operation
between the Vineyard and New Bedford, the Gazette has learned.
A 32-lot luxury home subdivision plan for the Herring Creek Farm in
Edgartown cleared the final hurdle for approval this week, but if a
complicated private agreement for the sale of the farm is completed in
the months ahead, the subdivision may never be developed.
In a barrage of invective and noisy statements to the press, New
Bedford city officials lashed out at the Steamship Authority governors
from Falmouth and Nantucket this week for their vote to kill a pilot
high-speed ferry project between New Bedford and the Vineyard.
It began with a suburban-style subdivision plan, polished
like a shiny apple: Maximum density, 54 luxury homes, two beach clubs
with swimming pools.
It ended last week with a record real estate sale and a
subdivision plan of a markedly different color: Six new luxury homes
added to five existing homes and a vast sweep of farmland saved
forever.
But between the beginning and the end of the Herring Creek
Farm story there is another story.
Steamship Authority governors will be asked this morning to consider
a mid-season fare hike, as the boat line faces escalating costs from
legal bills, rising debt and projected operating losses on the new ferry
run between New Bedford and the Vineyard this summer.
The proposed fare hike is set for discussion only; no vote is
planned until next month. If it is approved, passenger fares and the
popular auto excursion fares for Island residents will all go up.
He arrived when the Martha's Vineyard Commission was still in
its early years - not yet a decade old, not yet accepted as a full
member in the peculiar society known as Vineyard government. In fact,
when Charles W. Clifford took over as executive director of the
commission in 1982, if the commission was anything at all in the Island
community, it was a point of controversy.
