A ferry important company

It’s an important year for the Lake Champlain Transportation Company, bringing about

not one, but two anniversaries. The first of these is the 190th anniversary of the incorporation of

the company itself. As with any company that boasts such longevity, however, the company has

undergone multiple evolutions and changed hands many times over the years, and this year also

marks the 40th anniversary of the year the Pecor family gained ownership of the company. This

change in ownership immediately preceded the expansion of the Grand Isle crossing into its

current year-round service, according to Lake Champlain Transportation Company Operations

Manager Heather Stewart.

To some, the availability of this crossing is an integral part of travel that has seemingly

always been available for the community’s use.

“I’m not even a part of the Plattsburgh community anymore,” said former SUNY

Plattsburgh student and Poughkeepsie resident Chris Delano, “but I still come to Plattsburgh and

Burlington to hit concerts and see my old friends. The ferry’s always a part of the trip, and I

think it’s overlooked because a lot of people are so used to it, but it’s important and I don’t think

the area would be the same without it.”

Connecticut transplant Tiffany Rose agreed, explaining that the ferry trip offers a quirky

break on her trips to Burlington.

“Plattsburgh is in a pretty good spot with Montreal to the north and Burlington across the

lake, and Burlington already has a pretty unique atmosphere as it is,” Rose said. “The ferry ride

is something I had never experienced before I came here and it changes every time I go. It’s so

much better than your typical drive.”

But while the crossing serves its purpose as a link between communities, there is a long

history behind the company’s development that brought the Grand Isle to where it is today.

Stewart said Ray Pecor Jr. bought the company in 1976 not simply out of a desire for

profit or expansion, but out of need for a more convenient method of travel. Around the time

when Pecor purchased the company, he owned a mobile home company on both sides of Lake

Champlain, Stewart said. There were ferries operating at the time, but it was only seasonally, and

Stewart explained that Pecor dieliked driving around the whole lake during winter when there

could be a more convenient solution.

“Then the ferry company came for sale, and he said ‘I’m gonna try and buy it.’ So he

scrapped every little dime he had together and bought the company,” Stewart said.

The transition to year-round service came quite quickly after Pecor purchased the

company, and so it has remained ever since. The other crossings operated by the company

continue to remain seasonal due to their lesser usage, but Heather says the tourist season in the

summer brings plenty of people to the other ferries.

The leap from seasonal to year-round service was but one of the many changes the

company has undergone since the Pecors purchased the company, a statement that can be backed

up firsthand by Dan Landry, a veteran captain who is currently in his 41st year of employment

with the Lake Champlain Transportation Company.

Landry cited many reasons for the successful growth of the company, which, he said, has

increased significantly since he first began his stint with them in 1975. Chief among these

reasons is that the company was simply able to adjust to increased demand, which comes from

an array of travelers including commuters, tourists, medical-related travel between Plattsburgh

and Burlington, and commercial travel. A huge part of their 24/7 traffic is comprised of tractor

trailers, Landry said.

This presence of tractor trailers also prompted another type of evolution for the company

that both Stewart and Pecor mentioned: the development of boats over time to adapt to the needs

of the community. While the company has many older boats in operation at other crossings,

would need to evolve, too, to better fit an important group of stakeholders in the service. Boats

also needed redesigning to help combat the harsh weather conditions that the area frequently

experiences.

By Sean Messier

Another reason for the company’s growth, Landry said, is simple reliability.

“On any given day we might be running a few minutes late, but generally speaking we’re

a 24/7 company,” Landry said. “We’re here 365 days a year. Not much shuts us down.”

That said, the Grand Isle Crossing has had issues from time to time causing its closing.

Most of these tend to be weather-related, with ice and dangerous winds being the most common

problems. Landry recalled some less typical speed bumps in the crossing’s operation, too, such

as a fish hatchery fire that took place in the 80s that required a clearance of a mile and a half

radius in the event that the propane tanks at the hatchery exploded. This caused a three-day

shutdown for the crossing, but otherwise, Landry said, very little has come in the way of the

ferries’ daily operations over the years.

And for the time being, neither Landry nor Stewart expect a decrease in growth or

activity from the company thanks to the constant stream of traffic that now makes the Lake

Champlain Transportation Company’s Grand Isle crossing a part of its commute.

“It was really pivotal to the company that Ray took the lead to go year-round,” Stewart

said. “Year after year it just gets better and better.”