Residents are concerned about the Alaska Marine Highway System’s winter ferry schedule that provides limited service to Haines in November, and only one ferry a week from Jan. 15 to March 1.

Ferry spokeswoman Aurah Landau said the January to March service gap is a cost-saving measure, and from Nov. 1 to 14, the service gap is due to annual vessel overhaul. “The proposed schedule is based on the funding for fiscal year 2020, to stay within available funding levels and maximize revenue,” Landau said.

“In October, November, December, March and April, Haines will be serviced four times a week,” said Landau. From Jan. 15 to March 1, the Le Conte will not travel to Haines. “For all months, the Matanuska will still service Haines once a week,” she said.

Klukwan residents Pat and Ed Warren worry that limited ferry service will challenge their ability meet Ed’s healthcare needs. Eighty-nine-year-old Ed Warren suffered a spinal stroke last June that has confined him to a 375-pound electric wheelchair. They said it is impossible for Ed to fly on a small plane, and they rely on the ferry service to transport Ed to the Juneau VA clinic.

“He cannot sit independently. He cannot sit at all,” Warren said. “He just had his second spinal surgery in six months (in Seattle), and his daughter and I both had to be with him on a plane… They put a chest restraint (on him), and then we had to hold him up and it was very painful for him. But the small plane is impossible. So, between Haines and Juneau, we need the ferry for him. If the ferry’s not there we can’t go.”

Warren said that they have to make routine CAT scan appointments after Ed’s surgery, and “we’re going to have to plan the CAT scan appointment around the ferry schedule.”

Ed Warren is a Klukwan elder who has lived in the village his entire life. He is the uncle of Chilkat Indian Village tribal president Kimberley Strong. If ferry service was too limited to accommodate his medical needs, Warren said they don’t know what they will do. “I can’t imagine him being anywhere but home,” said Warren. “They asked me at the (hospital) last fall, they said, ‘have you thought about where you’re going to place your husband’ and I said, ‘what do you mean?’ We take this one day at a time with Jesus.”