Ferry and Transportation news

By MARGIE DOYLE

Editor

The County Ferry and Transportation Task Force, which was formed on Oct. 22, 2007 by the County Council, has been formed with members from various community groups.

Council Member Alan Lichter serves as chair of the Task Force. Other members include Orcas businesswoman and Eastsound Planning Review Committee member Patty Miller representing the County’s Economic Development Council, Orcas business owner Carl Silvernail representing the San Juans Visitors’ Bureau, Orcas Island Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Lance Evans representing the islands’ Chambers of Commerce, and Friday Harbor Council member and nonprofit consultant Liz Illg. The Ferry Advisory Committee (FAC) will select a representative to the task force to replace former FAC Chair Alex MacLeod, who was dismissed from the FAC on Jan. 28. See related story A1

The purpose of the task force was described by then-Council Chair Bob Myhr, as “to summarize and develop the county’s overall strategy to protect and preserve ferry service and address ferry issues; also to make recommendations to the council and to draft a council position paper on ferry and transportation issues.”

In other task force news, Orcas Island’s Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Lance Evans traveled to Olympia on Jan. 10 to attend the state Joint Transportation Committee meeting, as San Juan Islands’ Chamber representative. Evans says the meeting was well attended, both by observers and legislators.

The primary agenda item that day was a briefing from the Cedar River Group’s study of the current state of the WSF fleet and projections for the maintenance schedule. (Last January, the Cedar River Group produced the Ferry Finance Study’s report to the Legislature, and it formed the basis for much of the laws enacted in SR 2358, which provided directives to the Transportation Commission, to Washington State Ferries (WSF), and back to the Legislature.) The Cedar River Group’s vessel report was completed prior to the four steel electrics being removed from service.

The presentation of the report included written responses by WSF staff to recommendations made. It cautioned that “things are going to be tougher for ferry riders before they get better,” said Evans.

“Of particular interest was the age of the fleet we’ve become accustomed to riding, and whether the state should expect 60 year-old boats to be the norm in the future,” Evans said.

The dearth of dry dock maintenance space in the region – and into Canada – was noted, as well as the time lag it takes to design ferries, and then build them (several years at best.)

Evans says that the hope for the task force is that they stay in touch with WSF and the Department of Transportation with matters relating to the county, and to “turn around and get information back to the county and our constituencies to keep them up to speed on what we’re hearing and what we’re learning.”

Lichter speaks out on MacLeod’s dismissal

Orcas Council member Alan Lichter serves as liaison between the Ferry Advisory Committee and the Council. He differentiated between the FAC’s work and that of the Task Force: the FAC deals with scheduling and level of service. The Task Force deals with ferries and transportation which will include regional bus service on the mainlands and passenger-only ferry service. It also covers all meetings in Olympia that are ferry-related.

Lichter was the sole council member to vote against dismissing MacLeod on Jan. 28. (Council member Bob Myhr was absent from the session).

“[The FAC’s work] is absolutely critical and I’m very nervous about it,” Lichter said last week.

“The Council made a big mistake… in their decision to drop Alex [MacLeod]. We’ve lost the most experienced member of the FAC and it sends a bad signal all around, with WSF in a state of transition and with ferry service in the islands in jeopardy. It also sends questionable signals to other committee volunteers.” Lichter described MacLeod and Sutton are “the two most knowledgeable and experienced ferry advisors in the entire Puget Sound region.”

Lichter said that MacLeod “has a long record of dealing with WSF and they themselves have been every evasive… and [MacLeod] doesn’t stand for double-talk.”

Lichter described the hearing preceding MacLeod’s dismissal and Sutton’s reprimand as “inquisitorial and prosecutorial.”

“It’s a tough situation when volunteer members are frightened to speak out,” Lichter said.

WSF releases maintenance and operations schedules

On Jan. 18, Washington State Ferries announced that it has been working with the U.S. Coast Guard to schedule vessel dry-docking “that meets safety concerns and minimizes impacts to our customers,” according to a statement released by Marta Coursey, Communications Director for WSF.

“Between now and the start of summer schedule on June 21, we anticipate a few adjustments as we must downsize the vessel size on some routes to allow vessels to go in for maintenance and repairs. These changes will be felt throughout the system, but primarily on the Seattle/Bremerton and Anacortes/San Juan Islands routes,” Coursey wrote.

WSF provided documents that indicated that the 34-vehicle Hiyu will service the interisland San Juans’ route beginning in mid-February. Currently that route is serviced by the Klahowya. Ferries on the Anacortes-San Juan route until the third and fourth week in March are the Super-class Yakima and the Elwha, respectively. The Hyak, also a 144-vehicle Super-class ferry, will come to the Anacortes-San Juan route in mid-March.

Coursey asks that the public note that schedules “are subject to change frequently based on maintenance progress, emerging needs and vessel availability.”

A web link to the maintenance, inspection and drydock documents is at www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/