Advocates of ferries are turning to Gov. Sarah Palin to
revive a marine highway system they say is underfunded and steered by transportation
officials more interested in building roads than maintaining the fleet.
Concerns and complaints about the system have made headlines throughout
Southeast in recent months. An assembly member in Sitka told ferry officials earlier this
month her community has come not to rely on the service and state Rep. Peggy Wilson,
R-Wrangell, called some ferry scheduling "ridiculous."
Haines Borough manager Robert Venables, who serves on the state’s
Marine Transportation Advisory Board, became upset this week to learn that Juneau-bound
residents who must travel through Skagway on Wednesdays to reach their destination must
pay $81 for the trip, $44 more than the fare from Haines to Juneau.
"That’s scandalous. That is so wrong," Venables said,
vowing to make an issue of the extra fare. While making reservations recently, resident
Matt Whitman said he discovered he’d be paying $160 instead of $70 for two tickets to
Juneau. "It just seems crazy. I have to pay more because I get the privilege of
riding on the ferry an extra four hours?"
Borough mayor Fred Shields said he and mayors from other ferry towns
are planning to take arguments for more ferry funding in person to Gov. Palin. "What
we want is a first step by the governor to give the nod to her commissioners and (ferry)
director that yes, if more money is needed, she will support more money. It’s the
marine highway. They’re going to need more money."
Shields said he was not reassured during a recent meeting with ferry
system director Dennis Hardy, a retired U.S. Army Corps of Engineers official and Palin
appointee from Anchorage who has ridden on ferries only a few times. "He was handed a
budget that’s like $15 million less and he’s got ferries breaking down. I hope
I’m wrong but he doesn’t look to me like the person who’s going to give us
the best service."
Shields said Department of Transportation leaders don’t have a
"loving concern" for running boats or an appreciation of their importance to
Southeast. "The people at the helm don’t seem to have an interest in the system
itself."
Faith in the system under the administration of former Gov. Frank
Murkowski dropped so low last year that state Sen. Albert Kookesh accused DOT leaders with
deliberately eroding a system that they "hated."
In an interview last week, Hardy was asked what his department was
doing to restore public confidence in the system. "(DOT) Commissioner (Leo) von
Scheben has a real difficult job balancing the transportation needs of the whole state and
that includes highways and the ferry system. We’re working together to protect the
state’s interest in both systems," he said.
Hardy said Palin’s marching orders to him were to make the system
"sustainable and dependable," but said funding is tight and may get tighter.
"We’re providing the best services we can with the resources we have. Funding,
scheduling and service go hand in hand. We can only provide the level of service we have
funding to support."
The state’s long-term plan for transportation in Southeast is to
replace long ferry runs with smaller ones, extending roads where it can and operating
ferries where it can’t.
But Hardy said expected declines in federal funding and environmental
problems mean that plan won’t be realized for 20 to 40 years. The state recently
contributed $250,000 toward a $450,000 University of Alaska project to determine a course
of action for the interim years. The study is due out by fall 2009.
"Projections of tighter resources in the future is a
reality," Hardy said. "How do you maintain a dependable, sustainable service
with four ships that are over 40 years old and three that are more than 35 years
old?"
Labor and fuel costs have added to expenses, Hardy said. "A lot of
that stuff is out of our control (but) I’d say there’s going to be some
belt-tightening."
Marine Transportation Advisory Board member William Hopkins of
Ketchikan served 18 years as a captain on ferries and is an advocate of the system. Fuel
and personnel costs have increased steadily since ferries started running in 1963 but
until 1995, the system was able to bring in $1 for every $1.40 spent on it, he said.
That ratio has increased to $1 for every $2.30 spent largely because of
increased maritime regulations, he said. The Exxon Valdez wreck brought new requirements
for expensive crew training, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 forced a new security
regimen and a federal decision to join United Nations shipping protocols in the 1990s
created many hours of extra paperwork for ship’s mates, he said.
"The maritime world has been turned topsy-turvy since the Exxon
Valdez, and Sept. 11 has only exacerbated that," Hopkins said. "We have unfunded
federal and international mandates and they all come out of the ferry budget."
But Hopkins believes the system can generate more ridership and
revenues.
New U.S. Coast Guard regulations following the grounding of the ferry
LeConte in 2004 started a domino effect that has wreaked havoc with the Southeast ferry
schedule, Hopkins said. The boat was forced to reduce hours of operation from 24 to 12
hours per day, reducing service to Sitka and neighboring communities and pulling boats off
other routes to make up the difference. For six weeks this fall, Sitka had only one ferry
per week.
Like some other ferries, the LeConte should be cut in half and
lengthened to make room for more staff and allow it to resume its previous Sitka run, he
said. He also advocates reducing service to Prince Rupert, where customs regulations are
onerous, and increasing runs to Bellingham, Wash., which he said make money.
The system also needs to start putting money in its vessel replacement
fund to replace ships that are obsolete, Hopkins said. "If Southeast Alaska
doesn’t wake up and replace these ships and gets them running in a system that serves
people, we’re all going to end up with the service Sitka has right now."
Hopkins also has concerns about loyalty to ferries within DOT.
"They’re so focused on land and roads that the only way they can move their side
of the coin forward is if the ferry system retracts. It’s a huge fight between
competing entities."
Jim Beedle of Juneau, a special assistant to director Hardy, worked on
ferries almost 30 years before taking a desk job with the system in 2004. The most recent
scheduling problems resulted from the breakdown of the ferry Columbia, but ridership has
been up in recent months, he said.
"We’ve made a huge attempt at getting prices back to where
people can afford to ride the boat again. We’re trying to help locals by having low
round-trip fares," Beedle said.
Surface improvements to the Alaska Highway and inexpensive cruises have
eroded ridership in the system that peaked in 1993, he said. "We very much want to
operate on the schedule that’s printed. We know the more you run a consistent
schedule and meet it, the more people use (the system)."
Beedle reiterated Hardy’s sentiments about funding.
"It’s kind of scary. I think there’s going to be a lot of competition for
the federal money. If you listen to what’s being said, it’s not very rosy.
People should be concerned."
State Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Haines, said getting money into the ferry
replacement fund is a concern for him. Ferry advocate and Haines Borough assemblyman Norm
Smith said residents should push to have a percentage of the state’s permanent fund
set aside for road and ferry improvements.
They also should respond to an online survey of Alaskans’ budget
priorities that Gov. Palin is offering through Monday at www.alaska.gov.
"We need to politic it and push the buttons and write and call the
legislators and make it happen. I love getting my permanent fund check but it doesn’t
help me if I can’t get out of town," Smith said.
Federal funds may be more available for ferries than they are for
"roads to nowhere," he said.
Former ferry captain Hopkins said he was encouraged Gov. Palin shifted
the advisory board to answer directly to her rather than to DOT, but it’s too early
to say how much of her political capital she’ll invest in the boats. "The Alaska
Marine Highway System is fighting for its life within DOT and in the public forum as
well."
