New law to improve ferry service for island residents takes effect Friday

The Captain E. Frank Thompson ferry.

AUGUSTA — A new law that removes unnecessary burden on island residents by allowing the transport of medical samples on Maine State Ferries will take effect on Friday, July 29.

“My constituents and other island residents all along our coastline have been needlessly inconvenienced by state ferry rules that required them to take hours or even days out of their lives for routine health care services,” said Sen. Dave Miramant, D-Camden, who sponsored the law. “That was time they could have been working or spending with their families. This law is a commonsense solution to the problem.”

Previous changes to ferry service rules had the unintended consequence of forcing island residents to take hours or even days out of their lives to travel with medical samples to mainland medical facilities and back again. The new law solves the problem by requiring the installation of lockboxes on state ferries.

Once installed, islanders will be able to deposit medical samples in the lockboxes, and medical professionals on the mainland will be allowed access to the lockbox and its contents, facilitating diagnostic testing and other important health care services without time-consuming waits and ferry travel for island residents.

Gov. Paul LePage vetoed Sen. Miramant’s bill after it was enacted unanimously by the Senate. However, large bipartisan majorities in both chambers of the Legislature overrode the governor’s veto. Having passed as nonemergency legislation, the bill was scheduled to take effect 90 days after the Legislature’s adjournment.

“This law makes life a little easier for Mainers who live and make their livings on the sea,” Sen. Miramant said. “I’m confident it will improve their health and their quality of life.”