A 2020 operating budget, fare hikes for the coming year and a preliminary new design concept for the Woods Hole terminal building are expected to be discussed when Steamship Authority governors hold their monthly meeting on the Vineyard Tuesday.

The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center in Vineyard Haven.

With a $60 million, multi-year shoreside reconstruction project under way in Woods Hole, boat line architects went back to the drawing board earlier this year after designs for a new ticket office drew widespread criticism on both sides of the sound.

New designs were unveiled at a meeting of the Falmouth selectmen early this week, and are due to be presented to the board next Tuesday.

Architects have sketched a design for a one-story, flat-roofed structure that takes up less space than earlier designs, because a nearby utility building will hold some of the mechanical equipment that had been planned for a second floor.

The new concept also adds solar panels on the roof and solar canopies over bus berths outside, which taken together would supply more than 50 per cent of the building’s energy.

SSA communications director Sean Driscoll cautioned this week that the concept is in its earliest stages. “We’re a ways off from taking it to the board [for a vote],” he said.

Drawings and descriptions of the new design concept are posted on the boat line’s website.

Also on Tuesday, governors are due to make a final decision on whether to keep the 5:30 a.m. freight trip from Woods Hole to the Vineyard on the summer schedule next year. A group of Falmouth residents who want the trip removed from the schedule petitioned for a hearing on the matter last month. Residents along the Woods Hole Road have long objected to the noise from early morning truck traffic. But at the hearing, Island truckers and others argued forcefully to keep the freight run, which they said helps relieve traffic congestion by allowing trucks to make summer deliveries early in the day.

General manager Robert Davis is recommending that the freight trip stay on the schedule.

“There should be no mistake in anyone’s mind that the SSA’s paramount interest is to ensure that the Islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket are provided with adequate transportation of persons and necessaries of life on a year-round basis,” Mr. Davis wrote in a 23-page draft report to the board dated Oct. 4.

The 5:30 a.m. freight trip no longer operates in fall, winter and spring, but according to the report it is necessary in the summer to get goods to Island businesses early enough in the day to keep the trucks from clogging local streets.

The report is posted online.

Governors also will take up a $111 million annual operating budget for the coming year and a slew of rate hikes to cover added expenses. Some of those expenses are associated with a broad company reorganization following a comprehensive review of operations performed last year by outside consultants. In a 118-page report issued late last year, HMS Consulting/Glosten in Seattle found the ferry line’s management structure was outdated and top heavy, citing a litany of flawed internal systems for communication, safety and quality control. Without immediate change, a series of mishaps that crippled service on the Vineyard ferry route in late winter 2017 could happen again, consultants said.

The report was released in December 2018. For much of the past year, boat line managers have been working with consultants from HMS/Glosten on an internal organizational overhaul, which has included hiring new senior managers.

The overhaul is expected to cost nearly $1 million, leading to the proposal for rate hikes.

Fare increases planned for the coming year will be across the board, primarily on the Vineyard route. In a first, the SSA plans to institute peak-travel pricing for cars coming to the Island on summer weekends.

A draft budget was reviewed by the five boat line governors last month.

The SSA operates on a calendar year.

Boat line officials also will return to the Island later next week to seek community comments on the SSA’s draft mission statement.

The informal meeting begins at 4 p.m. Oct. 17 in the classroom at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum in Vineyard Haven.

The draft statement now reads: “Our mission is to operate a safe, efficient, and reliable transportation system for the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket in an environment committed to sustainability, accessibility, and community engagement.”

Writing the mission statement is a first step toward developing a strategic plan, one of the top recommendations from HMS and Glosten last year.

The SSA held similar meetings in Nantucket and Barnstable earlier this week, and will host the last one Oct. 21 at 4 p.m. at its administration building on Palmer avenue in Falmouth.