New Bedford Run Fails

No on License

By JULIA WELLS

Gazette Senior Writer

Steamship Authority governors voted without dissent last week to deny a license application from a private freight hauler to run year-round service between New Bedford and the two Islands.

"Our focus clearly needs to remain on providing for the Islands," said SSA general counsel Steven Sayers. Mr. Sayers was point man in the staff recommendation to deny the license application from Seabulk International Inc.

SSA Debate Spits Islands

Stormy Waters

By JULIA WELLS

Gazette Senior Writer

Calling a virtual mandate from some 800 people on Nantucket uninformed, Vineyard Steamship Authority governor and board chairman J.B. Riggs Parker said last week that he will press ahead with the ambitious new service model for the public boat line.

"I believe I am not informed enough to make a statement on these issues, and if I am not informed, it would be unusual to conclude that communities as a whole are informed," declared Mr. Parker.

Protection for Pond Shorelines

By JULIA WELLS

Amid a proliferation of applications for permanent piers, a new district of critical planning concern (DCPC) has now been proposed for the shorelines of two shellfish-rich ponds in the town of Chilmark.

Last week the Martha's Vineyard Commission voted to nominate the Menemsha and Nashaquitsa Ponds as a DCPC on the Chilmark side.

SSA Problems and Rate Hikes

By JULIA WELLS

Steamship Authority governors will be asked this morning to consider a mid-season fare hike, as the boat line faces escalating costs from legal bills, rising debt and projected operating losses on the new ferry run between New Bedford and the Vineyard this summer.

The proposed fare hike is set for discussion only; no vote is planned until next month. If it is approved, passenger fares and the popular auto excursion fares for Island residents will all go up.

Site problems, traffic impacts, resentment from two rival business owners and an exceptional program that has sparked a love of tennis in hundreds of Island children - all these were subjects for discussion at a second public hearing last week on the new building proposal by Vineyard Youth Tennis Inc.

Islanders Lambaste New Bedford Plan

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.