WOODS HOLE – The Steamship Authority’s raised rates will stay in place but the boatline’s Martha’s Vineyard representative says he will reach out to islanders who protested the rates.
Marc Hanover said he has learned a lesson over the past few weeks as an online petition posted by Oak Bluffs resident Todd Rebello garnered more than 2,800 signatures asking the boatline board to repeal its most recent rate hike.
At its monthly meeting Tuesday, the boatline board declined to take a new vote on the rates, but the board spent 45 minutes on the issue, according to Hanover, ensuring the four people who came to the meeting from the Vineyard were heard.
The meeting was held in the Candle House on the Marine Biological Laboratory’s campus in Woods Hole.
Hanover said that in talking to people about the issue, he believes it is more about communication than dollars and he said the fault lies with him. Having been on the board for many years, he said, he has not spent as much time communicating boatline issues to the community as he should have.
He said he would have signed the petition himself had he not known about the financial situation at the Steamship Authority.
“What I’m finding actually, is they’re more upset about lack of communication with what’s going on at the Steamship Authority than they are about the dollar, to be honest with you,” he said.
He said he is scheduling a public meeting to take place in March at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School on the issue. The exact time and date have not yet been set, but he said he expected it to be March 10 or 11 and at 6 or 7 p.m.
