Hudson County, N.Y., towns eye $20M ferry bailout.

Publication: The Record (Hackensack, New Jersey) (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News)

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COPYRIGHT 2004 The Record

Byline: Daniel Sforza

Nov. 13--A group of Hudson County waterfront towns is preparing to borrow $20 million to bail out and drastically restructure NY Waterway's failing ferry service, officials said Friday.

The money would be bonded through the Hudson County Improvement Authority and backed solely by county taxpayers. An authority would be created to restructure and run the system.

"What we don't want to happen is for NY Waterway to go belly up and the service to be curtailed," said Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise. "We want to be able to act quickly if ... it goes to Chapter 7 or a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing and the future of ferry service is jeopardized.

"This is the only thing we can do," he said.

The $20 million would be enough to purchase the company from the Imperatore family, which also owns the defunct APA Transport, APA Truck Leasing...

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