Et Cetera

HOSPITAL BOARD STARTS INTERVIEWS FOR NEW PRESIDENT The board of Nantucket Cottage Hospital is hopeful that by the end of September a new chief executive officer for the hospital will be chosen or, even better, in place when current president Lucille Giddings leaves to begin her retirement.

Giddings, who came to the island in April of 1996 to assume the important role, told her board in late January that she wanted to step down to spend more time with her family. Her husband, William, who has been very supportive in allowing Giddings to serve so long in her position, lives in the family's home in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., and has traveled to Nantucket through the years to spend time with his wife.

Margaretta Andrews, chairman of the NCH board, said that the hospital hired the executive search firm of Witt Kieffer, which has an island office, to find a new NCH president. Board members met early last week with Witt Kieffer representatives who presented resumes of six qualified candidates the board will interview on Nantucket at the end of this week. Immediately following those interviews, board members hope to narrow the pool to two or three candidates who will be asked to return for final interviews in mid-August. Andrews was part of the search team that brought Giddings to the hospital.

Giddings'Vestal Street home belongs to the hospital and will be offered to the new president if there is need or if the house is suitable to the incoming CEO's family size.

"We hope we have someone in the position, or at least identified, by the time Lucille leaves at the end of September," Andrews said.

SSA RELEASES NEWS IN NUMBERS The latest news from the Steamship Authority comes through numbers released at its July 17 monthly meeting in Hyannis.

Children aged 5 to 12 will now be eligible for 10-ride ticket books on Nantucket's new fast ferry Iyanough. The cost is $150 compared to adult ticket books that sell for $240. In related news, by the end of June 2007 a total of 870, 10-ride ticket books for the Iyanough were sold, compared with 194 ticket books sold during the first six months of 2006 for the now defunct Flying Cloud.

Riders on the Nantucket route will also have a travel/parking package available to them. Nantucket residents eligible for the company's excursion fares will receive one round-trip auto ticket originating on Nantucket that includes passage for two adults and two children and an off-site Hyannis parking permit, both valid from Sept. 10 through Jan. 10, 2008, for $400.

Some major numbers were related to the board through accountant Robert Davis's 2006 analysis of rates versus the cost of service. The analysis was done to ensure that no traffic segment - passengers, cars or trucks - is subsidizing another. While this is the third such annual review, the report for 2006 included the effect that revenue for the drive-on, drive-off option has on the cost of service provided.

The figures for Nantucket show that cars paying the standard fares covered 181 percent of their allocated cost of service with trucks covering 75 percent. In contrast, cars using the excursion fares covered just 47 percent and trucks traveling on excursion fares covered only 56 percent of the cost of service.

A total of 600 more vehicles were transported than in 2005, increasing the occupancy rate from 81 percent to 86 percent, primarily due to an increase of 87 trips on the Nantucket route. By factoring in the driver service option, Davis found that 133 percent of the cost of service for cars on the Nantucket route was covered in 2006, up from 125 percent in 2005, whereas the average cost covered for trucks was 94 percent. The total number of truck spaces occupied in 2006 rose by 11,610. Still, the cost of vessel operations and non-vessel costs plus indirect expenses for the Flying Cloud put the figure $325,968 higher than in 2005, representing a 1.4 percent jump.

Total revenue earned on the Nantucket route in 2006 came in at $24,457,910, up a healthy $1,816,991 from the prior year.

The next meeting of the Steamship Authority will be on Nantucket at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, August 21.

KOZAROV PROMOTED AT NANTUCKET BANK Todor Kozarov has been promoted to branch officer at Nantucket Bank. Kozarov has been with the bank for seven years and is the branch manager at the Pleasant Street office, Nantucket Bank's largest and busiest branch. Prior to becoming branch manager, Kozarov served as teller, customer service representative and assistant branch manager. He is currently enrolled at Babson University's School for Financial Studies, a two year advanced banking education program.

Bank CEO Bill Hourihan commented, "Todor is a real asset to the Bank and our customers. We are delighted to recognize his important role and contributions by promoting him to Officer of Nantucket Bank."

A graduate of the University of Skopje in Macedonia, Kozarov attended high school in Indiana, and returned to the United States after earning his bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering. Kozarov is a member of the Nantucket

Rotary Club. I