FAC Chair Sutton advises observation and participation by islanders
Next Monday, Oct. 6, representatives of Washington State Ferries (WSF) will meet with the San Juan County Ferry Advisory Committee and county residents aboard the interisland ferry leaving Friday Harbor at 11:40 a.m., Orcas at 12:30 p.m., Shaw at 12:45 p.m. and Lopez at 1:05 p.m. During the seagoing voyage, those aboard will have the chance to review information concerning “funding challenges, operational strategies, and route-specific packages,” according to Joy Goldenberg, WSF Communications Manager.
The long-term financial sustainability of the ferry system has long been a matter of public concern. The meetings this year were mandated by 2007 legislation (ESHB 2358 which required new levels of cooperation and collaboration between the Washington State Legislature, Washington State Transportation Commission and WSDOT/WSF.
The public comments received at the meetings will help inform the ferry system’s draft long-range plan due out mid-November.
Under the surface, the ferry financing situation has been on a low boil since ferry funding was drastically cut with the passage of I-695 in 2000, which took tax funding from ferry operations. The situation began bubbling over in the last few years with rising fuel and labor costs and most recently, with the retirement of the 60-year old Steel Electric boats from the fleet last November.
“Everyone acknowledges that the ferries are in a state of crisis,” says San Juan Islands’ Ferry Advisory Committee Chair Ed Sutton. “It’s the same as what’s happening nationally, and we have to realize it’s another century and a different world.”
Sutton says that after long-standing lack of leadership and decision-making by key people in government, “we now find ourselves where legislators have instructed people to find out what’s going on and find the way to right the ship.”
Sutton said the legislative directives are to make recommendations and strategies for funding, service and “making do.”
Sutton noted that the Ferries Division of WSDOT is trying to delay capital costs and work with what they have; he also cited remarks made by Transportation Commission member and former chair Dick Ford at the Transportation Summit on San Juan Island last week, that pricing, level of service and the cost of expanding the capital program are where ferry-riders will most feel impacts to the ferry system.
Sutton added that the consequences of the recent Coast Guard decisions on the “endurance schedules” for ferry crews will also impact ferry service.
“The public needs to be aware of the changes that are inevitably coming – it’s going to be different,” said Sutton.
“In spite of the need for long-range plans in which people move into the future, the typical ferry-user is more concerned about the short-term and, literally, where the ferry will be tomorrow.”
Sutton noted “The Vashon Manifesto” a position statement issued by the Vashon FAC after conducting a survey of local ferry riders.
He said the San Juan FAC is modifying the Vashon survey to provide daily specificity about how people travel, and plans to distribute it at the Oct. 6 meeting.
He hopes that with the interisland meeting format, many of the FAC constituency will attend and take part in the ferry discussion.
“I agree with Bob Distler [Orcas Islander and member of the Transportation Commission] that the participation on the last round of public meetings was too modest to be significant, so much so as to question the value of such meetings.
“That’s why, with the possibility of having a meeting like OPALCO’s annual meeting aboard the ferry, we’ll have much better representation.
“We have to be watching and, where possible, participate and voice our opinion, in hopes that the changes won’t be too dramatic and the impact won’t be too protracted. That’s true of almost everything in today’s world.”
