Newburyport gets a trolley, owner gets new beginning
Former officer sees a future in filling a void
NEWBURYPORT - Michael Vetrano knows what it is like to lose nearly everything. And then to pull through.
Five years ago, he was an Everett police officer and the owner of a uniform business and a sweet contemporary split-level with an in-ground pool. He lost it all to bankruptcy, after treatment of a tumor laid him low for a year. His second venture - a gas station and towing operation for which he took a leave from police work - fell victim last year to the recession.
Vetrano survived all that.
Now he is looking to make it work on try three, in the most difficult of circumstances. He is a small businessman opening shop in the worst economy since the Depression, with an outdoor venture at the soggiest start of summer in memory.
In May, he left the police force for good and opened an open air trolley service in Newburyport, hoping to cash in on day trippers to the pictur esque port under the sandy lee of Plum Island. Bad timing, so far. Before the holiday weekend’s respite of clear weather, few tourists were making the rainy trek to the Clipper City this summer, and to serve those who did come to slog around Newburyport, a duck boat might have been a better choice.
Vetrano laughed off the slow start one waterlogged afternoon last week as he wheeled the crimson trolley he has christened Big Gus into the perilous intersection outside his modest office on Merrimac Street. “I’m 0 for 2, three strikes and I’m out, but this one will succeed,’’ he smiled. “I can feel the difference in this one. I know I’m lucky. That’s why nothing bothers me.’’
It is the kind of upbeat attitude small business owners need to get by these days, and Vetrano has optimism in spades. His website proclaims The Newburyport Trolley Co. “WORLD FAMOUS.’’ One rain-soaked month into his operation, he is already thinking about expanding by getting a second trolley.
Why not? He knows he is lucky.
The doctors found the tumor - a pituitary macroadenoma - by accident when he went for treatment of a shoulder injury following a traffic accident. They told him the operation to remove it could cause blindness. That was when he had the epiphany that ultimately led him to swap his badge for a bus license, his sidearm for a money changer, and his police issue Dodge Charger for Big Gus, which lumbers along at speeds approaching 20 miles per hour.
“I always wanted to be in law enforcement, but after the accident, I realized that life’s too short,’’ Vetrano said Wednesday in a tiny office decorated with pictures of fellow Everett police, a coffee cup inscribed “#1 Police Officer,’’ and a dollar bill proclaiming itself “Mike’s first tip.’’ “I realized I had to find another way to provide for my family.’’
After 11 years on the force, Vetrano took a buy-out in May and put the sum - about $25,000 - toward starting up The Newburyport Trolley Co. He bought Big Gus on
Newburyport has been trying to promote itself as an ideal day trip from Boston - witness the “Newburyport: Love at First Sight’’ ads on MBTA trains - and the town enlisted Vetrano’s trolley service to make pickup stops at the city’s Commuter Rail station Thursdays through Sundays until Labor Day.
“The trolley has been very important to us,’’ said Mayor John Moak.
Over the roar of the biofuel-powered engine that makes Big Gus smell like French fries, Vetrano sang out the prime attractions along Newburyport’s red brick sidewalks and storefronts.
“That’s the best book store in Newburyport,’’ he shouted out as Big Gus rumbled past the Jabberwocky Bookshop at the Tannery.
“People come from all over the world to take pictures of that,’’ Vetrano said, indicating the 200-year-old church of the First Religious Society in Newburyport.
The trolley’s vintage, varnished wooden benches can seat 35 passengers, but Vetrano has only had groups that size when someone has booked the whole trolley. Through July 1, the biggest crowd of passengers off the street had been 15; it happened one Saturday when there were a few minutes of sun. That afternoon last week, the sole passengers were Vetrano’s 12-year-old daughter, Brianna, and his 7-year-old son, Mikey.
If you have been outdoors at all since May, you know the culprit.
“It’s been tough to deal with, this being the start of a company,’’ Vetrano said as he beheld the thick, wet fog cloaking the mouth of the Merrimack River from the deck of Michael’s Harborside Restaurant & Bar, one of his stops. “It’s depressing . . . normally, there’s a blanket of tourists in the street. Now, it’s small clusters.’’
Since the beginning of the holiday weekend, Vetrano said, the flow of passengers has been “nonstop.’’
He said that he has planned for a slow start. Vetrano and his wife, Tracy, have downsized to a small ranch in West Newbury and own a beat-up
“Dear Michael and Tracy,’’ read an entry from a group of school-aged kids. “Thank you so much for the ride. We had a ton of Fun. From the girl with the frizzy brown hair, Julia.’’
Vetrano can live with that kind of feedback.
“This business, I feel it, I love it, it’s me. This is why I know it’s gonna work,’’ he said. “We fill a void. We’re Newburyport’s only public transportation.’’
“We’re gonna weather the storm.’’
David Filipov can be reached at filipov@globe.com. 
