(Host) Commuters struggling to find a way across Lake Champlain after the Crown Point Bridge closed will have another option Monday.
As VPR’s Nina Keck reports, local officials and businesses in both Vermont and New York are teaming up to provide a new passenger ferry.
(Keck) Sometimes it takes a grassroots effort to get things done.
(Goodyear) "As a small business in Vermont, we can be pretty nimble."
(Keck) That’s Brian Goodyear of the Basin Harbor Resort. He says about 70 of their employees live in New York and were directly affected by the bridge closing. He says they quickly realized their business was not alone.
(Goodyear) "It became pretty evident over the course of the weekend that Goodrich and Country Home products and some of the other businesses in Addison County were going to be in a similar situation that we were in."
(Keck) Basin Harbor Resort closed for the season after last weekend. But Brian Goodyear says they pulled their 45-foot excursion boat out of storage and worked with local officials on both sides of the lake to set up a passenger ferry service – complete with public parking and free busing.
They’ll start the service Monday, picking up passengers at the Westport Marina in New York starting at 6:30 in the morning. Besides three trips in the morning, they’ll provide three return trips in the afternoon starting at 3:30. A round trip ticket will cost eight dollars – connecting bus service to Vergennes, Middlebury and Bristol will be free.
For VPR News, I’m Nina Keck.