Boat Line Forum Pushes Plan to Boost Passenger Traffic with Fast
Ferries
By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer
A plan to pump up passenger traffic to the Vineyard and pay millions
of dollars to develop the port of New Bedford in the years ahead was
pitched to the people of the Island this week as a way to increase
operating revenues for the public boat line, reduce car traffic in the
port towns of Falmouth and Hyannis and open up more space on ferries for
Island residents.
Signaling an abrupt shift in direction on the
ambitious new service model, Steamship Authority general manager Armand
Tiberio said yesterday that the boat line will ax two key elements of
the model, including the controversial scheme to replace all three
ferries on the Nantucket run with one multipurpose high-speed ferry.
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.
After months of uneven discussion about whether to open up
high-speed ferry service between New Bedford and the Vineyard, the
Steamship Authority is now set for a crucial vote on a pilot project
that will cost the boat line millions of dollars over the next three
years, if it is approved.
One state senator, one state representative, one Steamship
Authority governor and a band of Nantucket residents and town
officials spoke out yesterday in favor of a voting seat for the
town of Barnstable on the boat line board but not for New
Bedford.
"My job is to make sure Barnstable gets a vote. But New
Bedford has to be proven to be viable before it can get a vote.
Now, they should not be on the board at all," said Barnstable
Rep.
The governor's ferry task force that recently staged a
four-month crash course on the Steamship Authority has now opened the
door for a major overhaul of the public boat line that has served the
two Islands for 41 years.
When campers from the Vineyard's own Camp Jabberwocky went on
an unusual tour in Canada this year, their slogan was a single question
that was at once jocular and earnest. "How's your
news?" they inquired in on-the-street interviews with everyday
people.
As the year 2001 comes to a close, it is perhaps an apt question for
the Vineyard: How's our news?
An escalating contract dispute between management and
nonprofessional workers at the Windemere Nursing Home and Rehabilitation
Center will now go to federal mediation - and workers at the
Island's only nursing home will file a complaint charging unfair
labor practices.
Senior managers at the Steamship Authority knew months in
advance that the starboard engine on the New Bedford passenger
ferry Schamonchi was likely to fail, the Gazette has learned.
A professional marine survey prepared for the boat line
three months ago reported in some detail on the worn condition
of the engine. "The machinery, especially the starboard engine,
is approaching the end of its useful life, with major overhaul
due. The generators are of older vintage. Spare parts will be
scarce," wrote Michael L.
