Jim Bussman
	Seaboard Fuel

Do you have any interesting stories that you can tell us about the neighborhood?

Well, that’s a very interesting question. Let’s see, do I have any interesting stories about the neighborhood? Well I have always been very fond of the neighborhood and I have seen a transition over the years. I remember as a kid running down the street jumping on to the railroad cars and getting a ride on the railway cars because they would go very slow. But there would always be watchmen. There would be people on it so nobody would get hurt. But I can see that the neighborhood has changed. And right now I see that there is a lot of effort going in to making the area safer. And building it up so it can be used again, because this is a definitely an underutilized resource in the city of New Haven. The harbor has not been used, so the interesting story is that I can’t come up with any particular story, but I like the changes I see.

Why did your business settle in this area?

Well, for one of the big reasons is transportation. Transportation in New Haven is excellent. It is a hub. You have the waterway, and you have the rail, and you have the highway system. Besides that, you have a high population density, so that there are a lot of people. A lot of companies have to travel many, many miles just to fill up their trucks. We're lucky because we're within two-three miles of where we pick up our oil, so it makes it more efficient for companies like us that are living and working right in the area and pick up oil at the same place.

Did you ever have any accidents with coal or fuel?

In terms of spilling there has been very minor spills, and there are ways to clean that up right away. You have to notified the Department of Environmental Protection. As soon as there is a spill over five gallons now. it’s actually over a gallon now. We are very conscious about that and if there is a spill as I said; we have to notify the proper authorities so they can get the proper people to clean it up.

What do mean by grades of fuel?

There is one that is considered kerosene. And what they do is oil is refined and the higher up the chain, the more refined the product. What they're really trying to do right now is... well, you know about hybrid cars? Okay, I figured you had, what they're trying to do is make cars more efficient. And the same things happen in our industry. That's one of the reasons why our businesses are smaller than it was 20 or 30 years ago because we really try to have people conserve fuel. The average customer uses 1,400 gallons a year now the average is closer to 700. So what we're working toward is making everything more efficient so that were not using as much. The same with houses, people are building too big a house, driving too big a car. They are using too much resource. I’m hoping you young people will figure out a way to preserve the environment and the resources that we have, so that they last a long time. And everybody has to do their part.  

What changes on the waterfront have you seen in the past years?

I see more activity on the river right now as a matter a fact if you look at a picture that I showed you earlier, this one, this is pretty interesting, this speaks to the fact that there are trends and there are times for everything.

Have you seen any changes in the way that people use the river?

I do see a trend and a change in using the river more. It's actually a very exciting prospect, to think about using the river. For many years, we as kids, would come down and look at the river and wonder why there wasn't more activity on it. And now we fast forward many years later, 2005, and this building over here used to house trolleys. This was owned by the Connecticut Company. The Connecticut Company had trolleys and the trolleys would then go down the tracks and into the trolley barn over here. We bought it sometimes in the fifties when the trolleys were no longer being used. So we used it for coal storage. You can see the coal piles around there. Actually we never utilized it for anything other than just renting it for people who needed it. We rented it to lots of different people throughout the years. What's exciting now, is my brother Bill is involved with setting up a marina. We are talking about setting up a marina in this area. So we are all very excited about the trend and the changes that will result from taking an old building that was used by trolleys and utilizing it for something that is for the waterway. So what we are going to do is rebuild this dock and we'll put in what they call a travel lift and that will lift the boats out of the water. We will be repairing boats, maybe painting boats, storing boats on racks all along this property. Of course, these coal bins are no longer here. So we really have the confines to work all the way out here. That's about a four acre site. What's interesting is I'm the third generation in this company, so it was my father's father. We have two fourth generation young men right now who are going to get involved. Basically we are going to start a marina. We are going to continue to run an oil business and we have garages all along here to store our trucks. It is very exciting to think about that.

What are your hopes for the future of the river?

I actually see the waterways being more important and more useful in the future because presently the highways are clogged with cars and trucks. So, my hope is they ’ll start using the waterway to transport the goods we get and use in the city of New Haven. And you already see that happening. New Haven, the harbor itself has definitely gotten busier over the years and this is one of the bigger harbors in New England. Actually New Haven is considered the gateway to New England, so it’s a great harbor. Actually our spot on the river is a deepwater port so you can actually bring in some pretty deep ships that won’t drag the bottom.