Gagetown residents won't say goodbye to ferry without a fight

Finance Minister Roger Melanson cut "virtually the life blood" of Gagetown when he announcedthe elimination of the village'sferry this week, says one of the area residentspromising a fight to have the service restored.

"Mr. Melanson, with a stroke of a pen more or less said, 'Listen Gagetown, you're done,'" Wilf Hiscock said Fridayin an interview on Information Morning Saint John.

"We were blindsided on budget day with the closure of our ferry we're going to hit this head on. We're trying to get the government officials' attention to return our ferry to us in the spring."

The free cable ferry, whichcrosses the St. John River betweenGagetownand LowerJemseg, was already running on a reduced schedule put in place by the provincial governmentafter undergoing an estimated $100,000 in repairs last year.

Hiscock, who speaks for the Save GagetownFerry group, says people in the village are managing finewithout the ferry during the winter.But the warmer months are another matter.

"We have very little winter tourism in Gagetown, but the spring, summer, fall is the time. Everything is abuzz, business picks up, morepeople are working in the summer, farm workers are travelling back and forth, you name it," he said.

"We're no different than anywhere else in the province, we pay our taxes. That ferry is no different than a bridge or an extension of our highway."

Now residents must drive about 70 kilometres round-tripto everything frommedical appointments tochurch services. One area farmer bought property on the Jemseg side of the river a 14 minute trip when the ferry was operating, he said.

"Now he's landlocked, he can't get to it other than driving around with farm machinery, heavy, slow-moving farm machinery," Hiscocksaid.

"The insurance liabilities are astronomical, it's not safe on a four-lane highway and he's now travelling an hour. This was the stuff the government didn't consider at all."

Government officialssaid last monththe cost of replacing the ferry is estimated to bein the millions of dollars.

Ferry service in that region has been uncertain for some time.The former Shawn Graham government announced in 2009-10 that it wouldaxe the Gagetown ferry, among others.

Following a local lobbying blitz, the Graham government backed down and instituteda reduction in service, rather than eliminatetheferry.