Steamship Authority treasurer and acting general manager Wayne
Lamson said yesterday that a freshly minted plan for a high-speed ferry
project laid out last week by the city of New Bedford is now just one of
three new proposals.
"We got a proposal last Thursday night, there was the one that
New Bedford showed everybody on Saturday, and we got another one just
last night," Mr. Lamson said from his office in Woods Hole.
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.
Seabulk Proposal for Private Freight Service to Vineyard and
Nantucket Meets with Forceful Opposition
By JULIA WELLS
Vineyard residents spoke out last night against a proposal by a
private hauler to run year-round ferry service between New Bedford and
the Islands, calling the plan ill-conceived and one more burden on the
port of Vineyard Haven.
Vineyard SSA Governor Loses Battle to Impose $7 Million Fee on
Nantucket
By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer
Vineyard Steamship Authority governor J.B. Riggs Parker lost a
skirmish yesterday in his battle against Nantucket when the Falmouth and
Nantucket boat line governors voted to eliminate a complicated cost
allocation policy that could have led to ruinous fare increases for
Nantucket in coming years.
"It's time to put this behind us, develop a new policy
and go forward," declared Falmouth boat line governor Galen M.
Robbins.
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.
The governor's ferry task force had a three-and-a-half hour
lesson in local politics, economics, transit systems, self-governance
and the cost of butter last night when some 300 Vineyard residents
turned out for the final public hearing of the now-celebrated
fact-finding committee.
"Most of our year-round constituents are middle-class working
families, and the Steamship Authority is their lifeline to the
mainland," declared West Tisbury selectman Cynthia Mitchell.
Meet Kathryn Roessel: New SSA Governor Brings Law to Post
By JULIA WELLS
Her name is Kathryn but she goes by Cassie. She is 47 but looks 29.
She wears traditional Vineyard attire: jeans, windbreaker and a silver
scallop-shell necklace. She grew up in Pittsford, N.Y., and her speech
has the flattened O's that are uniquely associated with upstate
New York in general and Rochester in particular. She has a Cairn terrier
named Tugboat.
The county manager and the chief executive officer at the
Martha's Vineyard Hospital scrambled to contain the damage this
week after the surprise revelation last week that the county will
collect a $50,000 fee on an unusual contract that will funnel some
$500,000 in taxpayer money into the hospital.
The taxpayer money is intended to help defray the cost of emergency
services at the hospital.
Federal Agency Cites Packer Firm For Violations of Clean Air Act; Investigation Charges Release Of Tons of Toxic Pollutants
R.M. Packer Co., the 23-year-old gas and oil concern headquartered in Vineyard Haven, was cited by the federal Environmental Protection Agency this month for a long list of violations to the Clean Air Act.
The leading spokesman for the Herring Creek Farm Trust told the Edgartown planning board this week that the sale of the farm to a private buyer now hinges on the board's approval of a luxury home subdivision plan for the farm.
