To the Editor:
The editorial writer of the Martha’s Vineyard Times of Sept. 18 has this completely wrong. The SSA has been encroaching on Woods Hole since 1960. I’ve watched the whole thing from the beginning. I can’t believe you call the Woods Hole Road the end of a state highway. It’s not a highway, it’s a dead-end, two-lane road that’s been transformed by power politics into an overloaded service highway. 

I remember when they first widened the Woods Hole Road, and the SSA promised it wouldn’t be used for parking, but was immediately used for just that. People parked their cars on the side of that road past Church Street. Later, the SSA said they said they would never use the old train tracks for parking, but of course they broke that pledge too. They told Woods Hole people twice that the third slip in Woods Hole and the second slip in Vineyard Haven would only be used for repairs and docking. Fat chance, indeed; when Vineyarders rejected the second slip plan they had proposed, the SSA leaned on state legislators for whom they do favors and curry union support to pass legislation exempting the boatline from Vineyard oversight. They promised they wouldn’t increase boat traffic, but they have. There is a long, shabby history of SSA lies to Woods Hole and Vineyard Haven people. People on both sides of Vineyard Sound know it.

You mention the terminal, and make it sound as if Woods Hole residents are being silly or petty to want to keep what remains of the view. The huge terminal doesn’t even come close to fitting, and it is unnecessary and ridiculous. There are several options they have to not obliterate the view. They say they are bound by regulations, but they could actually move the building and make it smaller.

Woods Hole should scream loud and long on this issue of the early boats and trucks. You say it’s interesting that Vineyarders aren’t complaining. We are not the ones who hear them thunder down the road before sunrise. The trucks are moving much faster there than they are when they crawl through Vineyard Haven.

The SSA has no interest in Woods Hole, but it knows that every dollar it sinks into the Woods Hole terminal is an anchor that will reinforce its meritless argument that other ports, coordination in regional transport planning, and a reimagined modern fleet of vessels might create a future that respects the wishes of nearby residents and serve the traveling public better. So Islanders should pay attention. It’s in the interest of both Woods Hole and the Vineyard to support one another in an effort to protect what remains of these once remarkable places.

Molly Meigs Cabral
Vineyard Haven