Party Boat on the CT River

Connecticut Department of Transportation Commissioner James P. Redeker hosted a "First Crossing" party on the Chester-Hadlyme Ferry Saturday afternoon for local residents who helped raise public support for the ferry when the ferry service was slated to be last summer as part of the state's austerity program.

After the state decided to continued ferry service for two more years, Commissioner Redeker formed a joint state-local task force to work on ways to reduce the ferry's operating deficit by increasing ridership and increasing revenues.

Despite temperatures hovering in the low 40's and a damp wind gusting up the Connecticut River, more than 70 local residents from both sides of the river turned out to ride the on the Selden III  and celebrate the start of another year of ferry service between Chester and Hadlyme, said Humphrey Tyler.

Daily ferry service officially started on Sunday April 1, continuing 243 years of ferryservice first started by Jonathan Warren in 1769.