By Danille Turissini
PORT TOWNSEND — The $6.5 million the state plans to spend on temporary passenger ferry service while the Hood Canal Bridge is out in 2006 should be invested in something more permanent, the Chamber of Commerce’s top administrator said Wednesday.
“The problem with the Department of Transportation’s plan to spend $6.5 million to provide foot ferry service during the Hood Canal Bridge closure is that it’s only temporary,” chamber General Manager Tim Caldwell told the Port Townsend Kiwanis Club.
The aging floating bridge is scheduled to be out for about eight weeks in 2006 to replace the eastern half.
During that time, Transportation plans to build temporary parking lots at the Shine quarry and Port Gamble. Commuters on the North Olympic Peninsula would park at Shine, take a shuttle to Southpoint, then take a passenger ferry to Port Gamble.
They would then most likely have another car parked or connect with additional service to their destination.
“DOT plans to spend $6.5 million on something that will go away after the bridge opens, and they will have nothing to show for it,” Caldwell said.
He said the money would be better spent on the proposed Gateway Visitors Center, at the North Peninsula’s eastern entrance at the junction of state Highways 104 and 19.
The visitor center is also estimated to cost in excess of $6 million.
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The rest of the story appears in Thursday’s Peninsula Daily News Jefferson County edition.