Breaking news: Car ferry service to Port Townsend to be back in January, Gregoire says
Gov. Chris Gregoire, left, looks at the underside of the state ferry Quinault with Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond as Todd Pacific Shipyards CEO Steve Welch, right, shows them damage near the keel today in Seattle. Gregoire proposed retiring the state's four oldest ferries and quickly building replacement boats at a cost of about $100 million. Interim service to the Olympic Peninsula will start immediately with foot-passenger service from Port Townsend to downtown Seattle, and car-ferry service to Whidbey Island next month, the governor announced. -- Photo by Elaine Thompson/The Associated Press
By Jeff Chew, Peninsula Daily News -- From Seattle
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The governor and Washington State Ferries leaders also announced at Todd Shipyards that car-ferry service resumes the first week of January on the route linking the North Olympic Peninsula and Whidbey Island after Pierce County agreed to rent the 54-car boat, MV Christine Anderson, to the state.
Until then and beginning this afternoon, the state will contract the MV Snohomish, which has been serving Port Townsend and Keystone since late November, to make four runs a day from Port Townsend to Seattle's Colman Dock.
Port Townsend-based Puget Sound Express passenger ferry, the 35-seat Olympas, was contracted Wednesday to begin runs at 11:05 a.m. today out of Hudson Point Marina at the end of Water Street to Keystone Harbor ferry terminal on Whidbey Island.
The interim passenger-ferry mitigation comes after Port Townsend leaders and business owners railed on state ferries officials Wednesday during a Port Townsend-Keystone Ferry Partnership Group meeting, saying without a car ferry their businesses were suffering great losses or in jeopardy.
Port Townsend leaders are crafting a media promotional package targeting the Interstate 5 corridor, to let people know there is inexpensive ferry transportation from Seattle and Keystone to Port Townsend.
The Snohomish run from Colman Dock to Port Townsend is expected to cost about $6 round-trip, ferries officials said today. The Hudson Point to Keystone ferry is at the normal passenger rate and schedule.
Construction of three new ferries would replace the 80-year-old Steel Electrics, which state Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond pulled from service Nov. 20 after extensive pitting and corrosion was found in the hull of the Quinault after Hammond ordered a deep hull inspection. She declared the vessel unsafe, or with the potential for being unsafe, leaving the Klickitat idle at the Port Townsend terminal. Later, similar hull damage was found in the Ilahee. The Nisqually has been retired a second time.
"We must act now to replace older ferries with newer, safer and more efficient vessels," Gregoire said.
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Earlier story:
By Jeff Chew, Peninsula Daily News
PORT TOWNSEND - A whale-watching boat will become transportation to Whidbey Island, while Washington State Ferries officials ponder using their motor catamaran to ferry passengers to and from Edmonds or Seattle.
What started Wednesday morning with fearful, frustrated business owners pleading for a car-ferry replacement ended that afternoon with high-ranking Washington State Ferries officials progressing toward a holiday emergency plan to sail more shoppers to Port Townsend.
Pete Hanke, Puget Sound Express co-owner with his wife, Sherri, of the 35-seat whale-watching boat Olympas, said late Wednesday that his vessel was "a go" to start runs to Keystone on Whidbey Island from Hudson Point Marina at 11 a.m. today.
He said that he and state ferries officials worked out a quick agreement Wednesday night.
The Puget Sound Express runs will replace the passenger ferry MV Snohomish, certified to carry up to 149 people across Admiralty Inlet.
Hadley Greene, state ferries communications manager, said late Wednesday night that ferries officials were still considering using the Snohomish to carry passengers from Port Townsend to Edmonds and/or Seattle - possibly as early as Friday, and at a bargain price of between $6 and $7 each way.
"We're trying to get something going as soon as we can," said Traci Brewer-Rogstad, state ferry executive deputy director.
Meeting in Port Townsend
She was joined by state Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond, other ferries officials and Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, for a Port Townsend-Keystone Ferry Route Partnership Group meeting at the Pope Marine Building downtown on Wednesday.
The group has community leaders from both sides of the Port Townsend-Keystone ferry run across Admiralty Inlet, which links state Highway 20.
Some 30 Port Townsend merchants, many fearing that the lack of car-ferry service could sound the death knell for their businesses, called for saving grace from the state.
Hammond ordered the Steel Electric ferries out of service Nov. 20, declaring them unsafe after extensive corrosion was found in the steel hull of the dry-docked MV Quinault.
Last week, similar serious damage was uncovered in the hull of another Steel Electric, the MV Illahee.
While the MV Nisqually has been retired a second time because of suspected hull problems, the MV Klickitat sits idle at the Port Townsend terminal, its future uncertain as well.
Mitigation contribution
As proposed by the city of Port Townsend's Lodging Tax Advisory Committee and Chamber of Commerce, $5,000 of the lodging tax reserve would be matched by a yet-to-be established contribution from the state Department of Community Trade and Economic Development to mitigate the loss of the four Steel Electrics.
Only the Steel Electrics of the state car ferry fleet can ply the shallow waters and sharp turns of Keystone Harbor.
Port Townsend Councilwoman Laurie Medlicott, who chairs the city's lodging-tax advisory group that markets tourism to the Key City, said the group on Tuesday recommended that council members "pull the plug" on spring 2009 Hood Canal Bridge work closure mitigation money.
The city has contributed to the fund since 2002 in anticipation of marketing the town when the floating span's east end is replaced for an expected six weeks.
"Since the impact for this is going to be worse than that, we wanted to do this," Medlicott said.
'You can still get here'
Tim Caldwell, Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce general manager, told of a media blitz planned this week with the message: "You can still get here."
The radio, TV and newspaper advertising campaign to boost holiday sales in Port Townsend would focus on the Seattle and Interstate 5 market, Caldwell said.
Medlicott said the Olympic Peninsula Tourism Commission, a group of visitor promoters from across the North Olympic Peninsula - including Sequim, Port Townsend and Forks - would be consulted on the advertising campaign.
Hammond defended her action in pulling the Steel Electric ferries, but some Port Townsend business owners weren't buying it.
"What's happening here is, you allowed an 80-year-old section of highway to disintegrate," said Jim Switz , the co-owner of Ichikawa Japanese Restaurant, which is near the entrance to the Port Townsend ferry terminal.
He demanded that those responsible be held accountable, even if it led to firings.
"I've been working hard for a long-term strategy, which means building new boats and building them quickly," Hammond said.
"I wanted to come here today to hear what the community said."
Shipbuilding partnership
Joe Martinac Jr., president of Tacoma-based J.M. Martinac Shipbuilding Corporation told state ferries officials and ferry partnership group members that his company still supports a partnership of Martinac, Seattle-based Todd Shipyards and Nichols Brothers Boat Builders of Whidbey Island to construct a new ferry for the Port Townsend-Keystone route in a year.
They propose building a copy of a 54-car boat now used by Pierce County.
Both Van De Wege - who represents Jefferson, Clallam and part of Grays Harbor counties in the 24th District - and Hammond said Wednesday they were leaning toward the shipbuilding consortium's recommendation.
Carl Jacobson, staff chief engineer for the Klickitat for more than 18 years, said that the vessel was never ruled unsafe by Coast Guard inspectors.
"My concern is, I believe the Klickitat is a sound and safe vessel to operate at this time," he said.
Hammond, however, said ferries officials found so much "bad steel" in the Quinault and Illahee hulls that state legislators concluded they were throwing good money after bad if they went any further.
She said she concluded that the Klickitat's hull would be found to be similarly corroded once paint was removed.
Brewer-Rogstad added, "Our indications are that we are beyond steel replacement."
Ultrasound equipment
Port of Port Townsend Commissioner Dave Thompson, a marine trades operator, said ferry officials could check the Klickitat's hull using ultrasound equipment and without dry-docking and blasting away old layers of paint.
Mickey Davis, owner of Subway restaurant just across Water Street from the ferry terminal entrance, said his business losses have been as high as 52 percent, but that he could weather the storm because he has another shop in Sequim.
"Most of the people are not as fortunate as I am," he said.
Helen Starr, owner of Wandering Angus, 929 Water St., said her sales were down 50 percent this holiday season.
"This is my month. It's December," she said.
Last December, she grossed $50,000.
"I will probably end up shutting my doors and selling off my inventory," she told the group.
"If this downtown shuts down, it's going to be ugly for everybody."
David McCulloch, co-owner of Elevated Ice Cream on Water Street, said the ferry route should be treated like a highway.
"This is not just a simple matter," he said.
"You need to get a car ferry back in business."
Jones Act
Several Jefferson County officials urged a Jones Act waiver be requested from the federal Department of Homeland Security because both Naval Air Station Whidbey Island and Naval Magazine Indian Island personnel depend on the Port-Townsend Keystone car ferry to commute to work.
The Jones Act forbids vessels or components built under a foreign flag from being used in domestic waters.
"It's an option, but they want us to exhaust every other option first," Brewer-Rogstad said.
Jennifer S. Meyer, community-planning liaison with Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, said the Navy was concerned about moving supplies and personnel back and forth without a car ferry.
Without the supply route, she said, the Navy was forced to move ordnance to the base using the Deception Pass Bridge that connects Whidbey Island to the Skagit County mainland.
"If that ends up being congested, then it's going to have some severe impacts," she said.
Brewer-Rogstad said her agency hopes to have all options lined up by the end of next week.
"We might not have the answers, yet," she said.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: December 12. 2007 9:00PM