Tisbury Grudge on Police Pay Will Get New Hearing at SSA

By ALEXIS TONTI

A muddled Steamship Authority policy remained in the spotlight over the weekend, as the Vineyard boat line governor took a position in the debate about payments by the SSA for police details in the port towns.

Responding to the news last week that the SSA pays for extra police assistance and traffic control in Falmouth while refusing to do the same for Vineyard Haven, SSA governor Kathryn A. Roessel immediately supported Tisbury leaders in their call for the port towns to be treated equally.

But Ms. Roessel did not waver from her stand that the SSA should not pay for police details.

"It doesn't seem they have been applying the rules in an even-handed manner. It now seems it would be helpful if we articulated a policy, so that management would have strict guidelines, an overall statement about not paying for police," said Ms. Roessel, who has put the issue on the agenda for the next monthly meeting of the boat line board.

In April the SSA reversed its longtime policy of reimbursing the Island's port towns for police assistance and traffic control. The move left the Tisbury police with a budget short about $50,000 for this fiscal year. The police department in turn scaled back its detail around the SSA terminal, resulting in lines that often spill out of the staging area, clogging Five Corners and backing up along the roads out of town.

The Tisbury selectmen have been campaigning for the board of governors to overturn the decision, but have had no success.

Last week Tisbury leaders renewed their protests upon learning that the SSA pays for police to control traffic in Falmouth on weekends. The officers are asked to work in coordination with the shuttle buses entering and leaving the satellite parking lot on Palmer avenue. So far this year the SSA has spent about $7,400 on the extra police details.

Now Ms. Roessel has stepped into the fray.

"If the police offers are working on a public street in Falmouth, then of course Falmouth needs to be paying for them. That's the kind of thing our customers are giving Falmouth over $400,000 via the head tax to pay for," Ms. Roessel said.

The so-called head tax is at the root of the dispute between the SSA and Vineyard Haven officials.

In January the new 50-cent fee was tacked onto the price of each one-way passenger ticket on ferries that travel between the Cape and Islands. The money is collected by the ferry operators, sent to the state Department of Revenue and then paid to the port towns where the trip originates.

The ferry fee legislation mandates that the revenue be earmarked for public safety, harbor services and port infrastructure improvements.

The fee is expected to generate as much as $400,000 for Falmouth, $300,000 for Tisbury and $200,000 each for Oak Bluffs and Nantucket. Barnstable also receives revenue from the fee.

Ms. Roessel reaffirmed her position that services previously paid for by the boat line now fall under the provisions of the legislation.

"I had no idea we were paying for police officers in Falmouth. It doesn't make any sense. Falmouth gets more money than any other port town in our system," said Ms. Roessel.

"The bulk of the traffic is on the Martha's Vineyard route, not the Nantucket route. And the lion's share of the Vineyard traffic, everything going to Vineyard Haven, everything going to Oak Bluffs - except for the fast ferries - comes out of Woods Hole. It's a lot of money," said Ms. Roessel.

In recognition of the traffic problems that plague the area around the Vineyard Haven terminal, Ms. Roessel is also recommending changes to the way passengers with vehicle reservations are checked in.

"A large part of the problem at Five Corners is caused by the sluggish pace at the check-in shack. We need to get people off the street and into line immediately. While they're waiting on our property somebody can check the ticket," she said, adding:

"That's just one suggestion. If not that, then they have to find some other way to get our customers off the street more quickly."

Returning to the apparent discrepancy between the SSA's treatment of Falmouth and Tisbury, the Vineyard SSA governor concluded:

"It's disappointing to get these reminders occasionally that the culture of the Steamship Authority management is so often so prejudiced against Island interests. That needs to be changed."