Post by ferryfast admin on Aug 10, 2011 10:18:11 GMT -5
Maine town trying to secure rights to ferry terminal before it's sold.
www.ns.dailybusinessbuzz.ca/Provincial-News/2011-08-04/article-2691785/NS%3A-Bar-Harbor-council-eyeing-ferry-front/1
[YARMOUTH, NS] – Just like people are doing here in Yarmouth, in Bar Harbor they’re crossing their fingers for a return to ferry service next year, even though the chair of the town council acknowledges it’ll take a lot more than this to resurrect ferry service.
“Believe me, we’ve got as many fingers crossed here,” says Ruth Eveland. “But finger crossing alone is not going to make it happen.”
One thing the town council in Bar Harbor is keeping a watchful eye over is the ferry terminal property, particular after rumours starting floating in the spring that the property might go up for sale.
The property is owned by Marine Atlantic, which hasn’t used it for its own purposes since the MV Bluenose stopped sailing in the fall of 1997. When it operated the Cat, Bay Ferries leased the property. But now that it doesn’t run a ferry service between Maine and Yarmouth it ended the lease.
Tara Laing, a spokesperson for Marine Atlantic, says the federal Crown corporation is in the process of reviewing the facility and options for it. One of those options, she admits, could be to sell the property.
“We still have ownership of the Bar Harbor facility, but we aren’t utilizing it as a corporation,” she says. “So what we’re doing now is an evaluation of the property, but at this point in time that has not been completed.”
Laing said last week she’s unsure how long the review process will take. It’s already been going on for some time.
In May, the town council in Bar Harbor approved a motion supporting one of its councillors, Paul Paradis, to lead the effort to solidify support on behalf of town council from local, state, federal and international organizations and government agencies to help in transferring the Bar Harbor ferry terminal to an entity that would ensure any potential future ferry service has a place to land in Bar Harbor.
Paradis says they’ve been active on this front, meeting with the Maine Port Authority, federal officials and Patrick Binns, the Canadian Consul General to New England. They’ve also met with Marine Atlantic.
“We’ve been trying to make a case that it’s in everybody’s best interest on both sides of the border to have it maintained as a public facility of some sort, so that if a ferry ever became viable it would have a place to operate,” he says.
Unlike Yarmouth, Bar Harbor isn’t hurting for tourist traffic, with or without a ferry between Maine and Nova Scotia. Still, both Eveland and Paradis say a service is important to their area.
“The service was very valued when it was here and it has been a great disappointment to people,” says Eveland, who adds if a new ferry service were to bypass Bar Harbor, that would also be a matter of concern.
Paradis says a ferry service is important to Bar Harbor economically.
“We are blessed here in Bar Harbor, yes, but it’s a part of the puzzle and it makes the puzzle a little smaller without the service being there,” he says, recognizing a ferry service is a crucial piece of the puzzle in Yarmouth.
“What’s important is that it is important to us all,” he says.
Last month the private sector group in Yarmouth that is looking to re-establish ferry service - the Nova Scotia International Ferry Partnership - described the effort as "complex and challenging."
www.ns.dailybusinessbuzz.ca/Provincial-News/2011-08-04/article-2691785/NS%3A-Bar-Harbor-council-eyeing-ferry-front/1
[YARMOUTH, NS] – Just like people are doing here in Yarmouth, in Bar Harbor they’re crossing their fingers for a return to ferry service next year, even though the chair of the town council acknowledges it’ll take a lot more than this to resurrect ferry service.
“Believe me, we’ve got as many fingers crossed here,” says Ruth Eveland. “But finger crossing alone is not going to make it happen.”
One thing the town council in Bar Harbor is keeping a watchful eye over is the ferry terminal property, particular after rumours starting floating in the spring that the property might go up for sale.
The property is owned by Marine Atlantic, which hasn’t used it for its own purposes since the MV Bluenose stopped sailing in the fall of 1997. When it operated the Cat, Bay Ferries leased the property. But now that it doesn’t run a ferry service between Maine and Yarmouth it ended the lease.
Tara Laing, a spokesperson for Marine Atlantic, says the federal Crown corporation is in the process of reviewing the facility and options for it. One of those options, she admits, could be to sell the property.
“We still have ownership of the Bar Harbor facility, but we aren’t utilizing it as a corporation,” she says. “So what we’re doing now is an evaluation of the property, but at this point in time that has not been completed.”
Laing said last week she’s unsure how long the review process will take. It’s already been going on for some time.
In May, the town council in Bar Harbor approved a motion supporting one of its councillors, Paul Paradis, to lead the effort to solidify support on behalf of town council from local, state, federal and international organizations and government agencies to help in transferring the Bar Harbor ferry terminal to an entity that would ensure any potential future ferry service has a place to land in Bar Harbor.
Paradis says they’ve been active on this front, meeting with the Maine Port Authority, federal officials and Patrick Binns, the Canadian Consul General to New England. They’ve also met with Marine Atlantic.
“We’ve been trying to make a case that it’s in everybody’s best interest on both sides of the border to have it maintained as a public facility of some sort, so that if a ferry ever became viable it would have a place to operate,” he says.
Unlike Yarmouth, Bar Harbor isn’t hurting for tourist traffic, with or without a ferry between Maine and Nova Scotia. Still, both Eveland and Paradis say a service is important to their area.
“The service was very valued when it was here and it has been a great disappointment to people,” says Eveland, who adds if a new ferry service were to bypass Bar Harbor, that would also be a matter of concern.
Paradis says a ferry service is important to Bar Harbor economically.
“We are blessed here in Bar Harbor, yes, but it’s a part of the puzzle and it makes the puzzle a little smaller without the service being there,” he says, recognizing a ferry service is a crucial piece of the puzzle in Yarmouth.
“What’s important is that it is important to us all,” he says.
Last month the private sector group in Yarmouth that is looking to re-establish ferry service - the Nova Scotia International Ferry Partnership - described the effort as "complex and challenging."