At a meeting held at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center in Vineyard Haven Tuesday night, the Steamship Authority board voted unanimously to form a task force dedicated to long-range freight and traffic planning between the port communities of Falmouth, Oak Bluffs, Vineyard Haven, and New Bedford.
The board also unanimously approved 2020 rate increases for certain vehicles to offset a budget surplus SSA management deemed meager. With Falmouth board member Kathryn Wilson the sole dissenting vote, the board voted in a 2020 Vineyard schedule that included early morning boats many Woods Hole residents have complained about, and many Vineyard-bound truckers have described as logistically essential. Veterans and active-duty service members received a salute from the ferry line with board approval of free passenger passage on Veterans Day for the armed services.
Davis proposed the new Long-Range Vineyard Transportation Task Force in conjunction with a 2020 operating schedule that included a 5:30 am boat Woods Hole residents have decried as an invitation for loud trucks to pass through their community while much of it still slept. Wilson asked why the schedule and a report supporting it had to be packaged with the task force proposal for a single vote. Chairman Robert Jones offered to separate, or as he put it, “bifurcate,” the items, and did so.
Davis said the proposed task force would “work together with the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, the towns of Falmouth, Oak Bluffs, and Tisbury, and the city of New Bedford and with public input to attempt to identify reasonable steps we can take to address issues and concerns about freight and other traffic in those communities on a long-range basis.”
Davis also pitched a separate working group meant to help manage truck noise, among other issues. Davis said this group would work “with the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, the towns of Falmouth, Oak Bluffs, and Tisbury to focus exclusively, with public input, on identifying and developing reasonable and practical ways to monitor and enforce compliance with the Steamship Authority’s current noise-mitigation policies as well as to identify and develop additional ways to mitigate traffic issues arising from the Steamship Authority’s Woods Hole ferry terminal operations — not just during the early morning hours but throughout the day.”
He asked the board to authorize him to move forward with establishing both groups, though he offered no detail as to the number of participants for each entity, or where or when each entity would gather.
“I’ve always thought the people in Woods Hole and Falmouth will never achieve their objectives if they don’t have the blessings of the Island,” Jones said. “So I think to sit down at the table and iron those things out will alleviate a lot of pain.” Jones also said New Bedford was critical to exploring solutions, particularly with regard to freight transportation. While he expressed concerns about the structure of the task force and the working group, Jones said he was comfortable voting in the basic concept, which he described as “a good move.”
Wilson described the task force and working group as “critically important to developing a game plan that makes sense for the Island and Falmouth.” However, Wilson questioned why a 5:30 am boat would continue to be slated while stakeholders explored new possibilities.
No discussion was held on past studies and exploratory campaigns to route freight through New Bedford, the only SSA port community presently not served by SSA vessels and presently without port facilities to accommodate those vessels. New Bedford board member Moira Tierney, who participated remotely via a telecom device, didn’t offer comment ahead of the vote.
Rate increases showcased at an SSA open house held at the Oak Bluffs library sailed through with nary a peep from the scant audience. However, at another point in the meeting, a few audience members lauded the SSA for a redesign of the Woods Hole terminal building that among other changes, lowered the height of the proposed structure.
Davis proposed to the board a program to honor all active U.S. military personnel, including reservists, cadets, and honorably discharged veterans, by providing free passenger passage for all SSA routes on Veterans Day (Monday, Nov. 11).
Jones said the idea for the program came from former Falmouth board member Betsy Gladfelter, and was carried forward by Wilson, her successor.
“This kind of thing is really kind of dear to my heart,” Jones said. “I fought in the war in Vietnam …” Jones went on to say it was “years” before Vietnam veterans received the welcome home they deserved. Jones said with support from the Greatest Generations Foundation, he’ll be traveling to Vietnam shortly in a program that brings vets back to their former battlefields for “closure and healing.”
He endorsed the gratis passage program for Veterans Day, which passed unanimously.