Interstate Navigation met with the New Shoreham Town Council for its yearly Q and A session, and the answers to the questions leaned heavily toward “maybe.” With two of the three members of the Town Council, Martha Ball and Mark Emmanuelle, admitting that they rarely use the ferry, and with Second Warden Sven Risom absent, it was mostly up to the audience to push for improved services from the island’s “lifeline.”
This year, Interstate changed up the winter service schedule, adding Wednesday as a day that it is possible to leave the island and return in the same day. Interstate Navigation has the unenviable task of balancing the needs of the various groups of island inhabitants, some who want more boats, some who want less boats, as well as Interstate’s own needs of economic viability.
Chris Blane spoke from the audience to request that the Thursday hours be restored, making it a viable off-island day. Thursday’s schedule mirrors Wednesday’s, and while there are boats available to go off the island and then back on, the time between arrival on the mainland and departure back to Block Island is five-and-a-half hours. In recent years, the Thursday schedule mirrored the
