Nantucket Launches Study

By JULIA WELLS

Marking a painful new chapter in the checkered history of the
Steamship Authority, the people of Nantucket voted, without dissent, at
a public meeting this week to launch a formal study of whether to secede
from the boat line which has been their lifeline for over four decades.

The study will be privately funded and led by a private group that
was spearheaded by Nantucket SSA governor Grace Grossman and port
council member Flint Ranney.

"In November Steamship Authority management sat stone-faced
and looked at us like we had three heads. Hopefully now they will look
at us and know that we are serious about taking back our
lifeline," declared Nantucket resident Jamie Ranney.

"Maintenance is atrocious, the boats are filthy, and now they
are getting ready to spend money to build a new boat to the Vineyard. We
don't want to be part of that," said Nantucket harbor master
Dave Fronzuto.

"The Steamship Authority is the epitome of arrogance,"
said Dr. Timothy Lepore.

The comments came during a public forum on Nantucket on Monday
night, when more than 450 residents turned out to discuss the burning
topic of the day: whether Nantucket should withdraw from the
state-chartered SSA and form its own independent boat line.

Held at the Nantucket High School, the forum was sponsored by the
town selectmen.

"The question tonight is simply this: Do you want the
designees to the Steamship Authority and their agents to continue to
investigate the viability of an independent ferry system to operate
between Nantucket and the mainland?" said board chairman Finn
Murphy, who moderated the meeting.

After just over an hour of cogent discussion, the overflow crowd of
islanders answered the question with a single, resounding voice:
"Aye." A call for nays was greeted with silence.

"If you can build a better mousetrap … it makes sense
to take this step now," said Bob Jones, a member of the Barnstable
city council who is also a member of the boat line port council. The
endorsement of the study from Mr. Jones was seen as an important piece
of a complicated puzzle now unfolding around the boat line. Barnstable
is the mainland port community for Nantucket.

Barnstable SSA governor Robert O'Brien has also said he
supports the study.

The meeting Monday opened with a prolonged standing ovation for Mrs.
Grossman, the embattled boat line governor who has been at odds with her
own board and senior managers at the SSA for months.

"As my grandchildren would say, this is an awesome
turnout," she said.

"Of the people, by the people and for the people is how we
must proceed," she also said.

The move to explore the possible breakup of the boat line surfaced
several weeks ago when it was revealed that Mrs. Grossman had privately
approached high-ranking state officials to discuss a split.

There has been growing dissatisfaction on Nantucket in the last year
over rising fares, declining quality of service and a perceived arrogant
attitude from senior management about the problems.

Problems came to a head at the November SSA meeting on Nantucket
- the meeting erupted in anger over a J. Crew marketing plan
during the Christmas Stroll weekend. The plan was later scrapped, but
the damage was done.

On Monday night the November meeting was a prominent theme. In her
remarks Mrs. Grossman said the genesis of the problems can be traced to
two years ago when the enabling legislation was changed and New Bedford
was brought back into the fold as a port and an active member of the
board for the first time in 40 years.

Calling the addition of New Bedford onto the board a "slippery
slope," Mrs. Grossman also said: "The focus and the finances
are now New Bedford oriented, not lifeline oriented."

Others echoed the New Bedford theme.

"The Steamship Authority hasn't been broken until
recently. It worked until Mr. Leontire [former New Bedford city
solicitor George Leontire] convinced the state legislature that we are
bunch of rich bigots - he couldn't convince us to go 55
miles, but he convinced the Vineyard to go 22 instead of seven,"
declared Nat Lowell. "Grace, I don't know how to to say it,
but you've got my blessing," he added.

"We have to get an act of the state legislature to get this
done - they're the ones who gave us New Bedford, and
they're the ones who can take it apart," said Curtis Barnes.

"The act of the legislature changing the board is a
fiasco," said Dr. Lepore.

Early in the meeting Jamie Ranney read a line from a letter written
by Vineyard SSA governor Kathryn A. Roessel last week that took a sharp
poke at Nantucket and Mrs. Grossman.

As Mr. Ranney read, the crowd groaned.

"If that doesn't sum up the arrogant attitude. . . . I
haven't seen anything but put-downs from the Vineyard, and the
first thing they should do is apologize," Mr. Ranney said.

"The two greatest problems the Steamship Authority has are in
its name - number one, there are no more steamships, and number
two there is too much authority and it's misplaced," said
Philip Read, who served as the boat line governor from 1976 until 1983.
He advocated for abolishing the central reservation office in Mashpee
and centering the SSA reservation offices on the Vineyard and Nantucket.

"I think it's very telling that we have such a huge
turnout and Steamship Authority chief executive officer Fred Raskin
could not find the time to meet with us," said Steven Tornovish,
the former Nantucket member of the boat line financial advisory board.

Mr. Raskin said later that he did not attend the meeting because he
was told to stay away. "Grace made it clear she didn't want
us there. I knew I was going to take a hit for it, and I did," he
said.

Mr. Raskin said he did not discount the seriousness of the study,
but he said he is now content to see how things play out.

"I believe that they are doing what they say they are doing
- whether that results in a new boat line, I have no way of
knowing. We're going to keep doing the best job we can. And all
the talk is really very disruptive," he said.

Ms. Roessel said she welcomes the study, but she criticized Mrs.
Grossman for being at the center of it.

"I think it's a really good thing they are investigating
this, but I don't think that it's a good thing that Grace
Grossman is heading up the investigation. I think that puts her in a
conflict, and I think it also puts the other members in an uncomfortable
position," Ms. Roessel said.

She concluded on a gloomy note: "I really believe the Islands
have interests in common and that they are stronger together than they
are apart, but I have to say that at this point I have to concede defeat
in trying to work cooperatively with Mrs. Grossman."

The feasibility study is a step into uncharted territory. On Monday
Mrs. Grossman announced that Tom Kiley, a Boston attorney, would lead
the study group. In comments to the press following the meeting, Mr.
Kiley said the group includes about 10 people whose identities have not
yet been made public. He did say that the group plans to hire a
lobbyist.

Discussions about the possible split began in earnest last summer
when Galen Robbins, the former Falmouth boat line governor, traveled to
Nantucket to meet with Mrs. Grossman and Mr. Murphy to talk about the
idea. Mr. Murphy confirmed that in July Mr. Robbins did some kind of
financial projections for an independent boat line between Nantucket and
Hyannis. It is unclear how many selectmen participated in the meeting.

On Monday after the meeting, Mr. Murphy said the feasibility study
will be ultimately be reported out publicly and through the selectmen.
Beyond that, he said it is too early to say how the study process will
unfold.

"Tonight is getting onto the field - we haven't
started to play ball yet," he said.