Business
Woods Hole-New Bedford Service Resumes
New England Fast Ferry service linking New Bedford and Woods Hole resumed yesterday after being interrupted for about one week due to a mechanical error with one of the ferries.
The New Bedford to Woods Hole ferry service is a pilot program running through Nov. 10 that will test the market for commuters and tourists.
New England Fast Ferry also operates year-round service between the Vineyard and New Bedford under license from the Steamship Authority.
A $5 million funding bill before the Massachusetts House of Representatives would provide relief for Island businesses and their seasonal employees struggling with chronic housing affordability problems.
Although the proposal’s political fate is uncertain, it would be a welcome buttress to disparate housing and retraining strategies already playing out on the Vineyard, where employers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to sustain a stable workforce.
The Oak Bluffs Community Preservation Committee (CPC) is pleased to announce that application forms are now available to request funding for projects for historic preservation, affordable housing and open space/recreation for the fiscal year that begins in July 2008.
Requests for proposals are being accepted through Oct. 5, 2007.
T he two brothers are seven years apart. One lives in Boston and one makes his year-round home in Oak Bluffs. They do not take vacations together or talk regularly on the phone. But from Memorial Day to Columbus Day, the Giordano brothers spend their waking hours under the same roof, working the family business established by their grandparents at the foot of Circuit avenue in Oak Bluffs: Giordano’s Restaurant.
Interviews by Julia Rappaport
Wilfred (Buster) Giordano Jr.
Passenger Traffic Rises on Steamship Ferries
Passenger and automobile traffic between Woods Hole and the Vineyard on Steamship Authority ferries increased in August, while truck traffic dipped.
The boat line reports that 345,864 passengers traveled on the route this past month, up 4.9 per cent over the same month a year ago. The SSA also transported 50,775 automobiles, up 4.5 per cent over August 2006.
The Falmouth-based Pied Piper is the little ferry that just keeps on going. On a recent Sunday afternoon, a number of the passengers aboard were as familiar with the ritual of boarding the boat as repeat customers are familiar with a commuter bus.
Ed Berger of Wellesley and Chappaquiddick was comfortably seated, his weekend with family over. On this late-afternoon trip he was heading home to get back to work. Seated next to him was his father in law, Sam Fuller of Sherborn.
Mr. Berger identified himself as a weekend commuter.