FALMOUTH - - At a tense meeting that was marked by scattered
calls for his resignation, Falmouth Steamship Authority governor Galen
Robbins defended himself last night against a stream of accusations that
he has defied the selectmen who are his appointing authority, especially
on the subject of New Bedford ferry service.
A 19-year-old Vineyard man was sentenced to five years in state
prison yesterday after he was convicted of raping a 15-year-old girl in
a late-night incident in Oak Bluffs two years ago.
Kathryn Roessel Begins First Term Amid Aggressive Selectmen's Campaign to Overthrow Her With Political Maneuvers
In a quiet ceremony on the second floor of the Edgartown courthouse yesterday, Kathryn A. Roessel was sworn in as the new Vineyard Steamship Authority governor.
The appointment came amid a fresh wave of back-corridor politics, both on the Vineyard and on Beacon Hill, aimed at some kind of coup to overthrow Ms. Roessel by fast-tracking a piece of stalled legislation that would overhaul the SSA board of governors.
Early concept drawings were unveiled last week for a 250-foot,
doubled-ended ferry that will eventually replace the Islander, the
dependable and beloved Steamship Authority ferry that has plied the
route between Woods Hole and the Vineyard for 52 years.
Congressman Ties New Bedford to Full Pay for Any Ferry Deficit
By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer
If New Bedford and the state legislature want the Steamship
Authority to run ferry service between the Whaling City and the Islands,
then the port should agree to pay 100 per cent of any deficit incurred.
That was the opinion of Cong. William Delahunt, delivered bluntly in
a conversation with the Gazette yesterday morning.
Quoting legendary college basketball coach John Wooden and
expressing pride at his own accomplishments, Kevin Burchill, the
embattled chief executive officer at the Martha's Vineyard
Hospital, announced last weekend that he will resign.
"This will offer the hospital the best possible options to
move forward - for everyone," Mr. Burchill said in a
prepared statement read at the outset of a community forum on hospital
affairs.
SSA Board Settles Bothersome Issue Of Cost Allocation
By JULIA WELLS
At a meeting marked by general good humor and a series of brisk
business decisions, Steamship Authority governors voted without dissent
yesterday to adopt a modified cost allocation policy that puts to bed an
internal accounting issue that has been at the center of a simmering
political feud for the last year.
"I feel we should vote on this and get it done," said
Nantucket governor Grace Grossman, who surprised her Vineyard critics by
leading a move to vote for the policy.
The stage is now set for a fresh round of debate on the third plan
in two years to convert the last stretch of unbroken woodland in the
town of Oak Bluffs to a luxury golf club and housing development.
A prominent Boston attorney who represents the Steamship Authority
fired back yesterday at the state attorney general for climbing into bed
with the city of New Bedford in the latest political gambit around the
public boat line that is the lifeline to the two Islands.
The search for a new chief executive officer for the Steamship
Authority took an unexpected turn late yesterday when one of the leading
candidates for the job suddenly dropped out.
