SSA Will Contact Political Leaders to Express Serious Concerns About
Sea Safety and Threats Posed by Wind Farm Plan
By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer
Steamship Authority governors will add their collective voice to the
growing list of groups now logging in with an array of concerns about a
giant wind farm that has been proposed for Nantucket Sound.
The vocal critics and Monday morning analysts peddle doomsday
scenarios about the Steamship Authority with increasing regularity, and
while the voices may vary, the message is unchanged: The financial
condition of the boat line is precarious, the future is riddled with
uncertainty, and there is no money to pay for future capital projects.
Whaling City Wins Most Issues; Two Islands Get Little in Return
By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer
BOSTON - Ending a four-year hostile crusade by the city of New
Bedford to restructure the Steamship Authority, state legislators
finally surrendered this week, approving a bill that meets nearly all
the demands of the Whaling City, including an immediate voting seat on
the boat line board of governors.
Document Trail Reveals Patterns of Quiet Collusion
During Year of Controversy Around Island Boat Line
By JULIA WELLS
Collusion: the word has surfaced more than once in recent
months during a storm of politics around Steamship Authority affairs.
When Vineyard boat line governor J.B. Riggs Parker was not
reappointed by the Dukes County Commission in a 4-3 vote late last
year, a group of Vineyard selectmen and city officials in New Bedford
cried foul, among other things accusing four members of the county
commission of collusion.
In a characteristic display of Island independence, voters on Martha's Vineyard turned out in large numbers this week to throw strong support to Shannon O'Brien for governor, reject an outside initiative to change the way their Steamship Authority governor is appointed and elect a solid slate of conservation-minded Islanders to the Martha's Vineyard Commission.
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.
