Steamship Authority chief executive officer Fred Raskin said this week that reports of his impending resignation are premature, although he did admit that the decision is now at hand: Will he stay in the top post at the boat line that he stepped into barely two years ago, or leave?
"I haven't made a final decision, although I think I will shortly and I'll talk to the board about it before I make a final decision," Mr.
Draft Legislation on Boat Line Break-Up Prompts Furor and Charges of
Bad Faith
By JULIA WELLS and ALEXIS TONTI
An underground group that wants Nantucket to break away from the
Steamship Authority is now circulating draft legislation on Beacon Hill
to establish a commission to study splitting the public boat line in
two.
The group is led by Nantucket SSA governor Grace Grossman, a
well-entrenched Democrat with powerful connections in the state house.
SSA Board Meets for First Time Since Nantucket's Decision to
Explore Secession from Authority
By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer
Steamship Authority news has been dominated by power and politics in
recent weeks, but when the boat line board of governors convenes for its
monthly meeting this Thursday morning, much of the discussion is
expected to center on rules - new rules for dogs, old rules for
excursion travel and some rules that are top secret in the name of
national security.
The Aquinnah planning board will seek criminal charges against two
seasonal residents and a local landscape company who topped a large
swath of trees off Lobsterville Road without permission this summer.
With a contract that expired more than a year ago and no real end in sight at the bargaining table, tension has begun to escalate between management and vessel workers at the Steamship Authority.
Union workers picketed SSA terminals on both sides of the sound over Memorial Day weekend, waving signs that put the spotlight on a simmering and now long-running dispute over manning levels, wages and retirement benefits.
For Second Time, Aquinnah Voters Reject Budget Override; A Difficult
Year Ahead
By JULIA WELLS
Voters in Aquinnah spoke - and loudly - for the second
time in four weeks yesterday, rejecting a $130,000 general override to
Proposition 2 1/2 by a decisive margin in a special town election.
The final count was 75-56 against the override to the state-mandated
tax cap. There was only one question on the ballot. The vote echoed a
special election last month, when voters rejected a $260,000 override by
three votes. The final count then was 40-37.
Oak Bluffs Results Were a Surprise - Is Healing of Long Battle
Under Way?
By Julia Wells
In Oak Bluffs the landscape has changed, and it's not just the
daffodils and day lilies. In this seaside town of honky tonk and
gingerbread and emerald parks, the landscape of local politics has also
suddenly changed.
The agreement grew out of formal mediation and was signed in 1994
during one of the most heated debates in the history of the town, but
today it is a forgotten document, the details fuzzy and faded, even in
the memories of the people who signed it.
Kupersmith's Attorney, Vowing Defiance of Cease and Desist
Order, Is Told Criminal Charges Could Come
By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer
Attorneys for the Down Island Golf Club have clashed head-on with
top state environmental officials, declaring bluntly that the developers
will not comply with the recent cease and desist order in the southern
woodlands.
