The governmental and financial package hailed Friday as giving Gloucester's Cape Pond Ice a new lease on life is not only a welcome and deserved lift for a business that's had to deal with the real-world effects of over-regulation on several fronts.
It also stands as a reminder of how government — especially private-public partnerships — can actually work when all sides commit to achieving a result that's not only desired, but in this case, absolutely necessary for a community and its economy. It was just last summer that Cape Pond Ice President Scott Memhard called out for help — and understandably so.
First, his core business — supplying ice for Gloucester's and Cape Ann's commercial and recreational fishing boats, has taken several hits just through the federal government's tight catch limits that have driven fishermen off the water and thereby cut sharply into the ice demand.
Read the full story at Gloucester Times>>