Old ferries’ fate could be sealed today

SEATTLE — Gov. Chris Gregoire likely will deliver some bad news this morning for people who still hold out hope for the state’s oldest ferries.

At a Seattle shipyard where two of the 80-year-old vessels are in dry dock, the governor was scheduled to announce whether the state will continue to spend millions of dollars trying to return the leaking, corroded boats to service.

If Gregoire follows the advice of state Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond and key state legislators, the Steel Electric-class ferries will have carried their last passengers.

Hammond on Wednesday said it is highly unlikely the state’s four oldest ferries will ever return to service.

“I’m not willing to put passengers’ lives at risk,” she said.

Hammond on Nov. 20 ordered the ferries tied up, citing concerns over their hulls, which in places still contain 1927-vintage steel plates. The decision severed a key transportation link between Keystone on Whidbey Island and Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula.

At a community meeting in Port Townsend on Wednesday, the transportation secretary faced a sometimes angry crowd.

Port Townsend restaurant owner Jim Switz was furious at the way state officials handled problems with the aging ferries. He told Hammond he didn’t understand how the situation became so dire so quickly and asked why the state didn’t have a viable plan to replace boats long in need of retirement.

“We didn’t get hit by a meteor,” he said. “These are 80-year-old boats. Who’s going to be fired? Who’s going to be responsible for letting this go on? … How could this possibly be allowed to happen?”

Hammond said she expects to make some big decisions in the coming days.

“We are in a crisis,” she said. “We’ve got to get this done. No more talk. No more angst about this or that. We’ve got to make a commitment to the community and we’ve got to deliver.”

The loss of vehicle ferry service to Port Townsend has cut tourism dramatically. At some shops and restaurants, business has dipped by 50 percent.

State officials told the standing-room-only gathering in Port Townsend they are exploring all options for rapidly restoring car-ferry service to the community, including using barges, bringing in foreign ferries and the creation of new passenger-only ferry routes.

In an effort to help salvage what has become a miserable holiday shopping season for many Port Townsend merchants, the ferry system may soon begin shuttling shoppers between downtown Seattle and Port Townsend, Hammond said.

The passenger ferry Snoho­mish, now the state’s only link between the Olympic Peninsula and Whidbey Island, may be moved to a new Seattle run to bring holiday shoppers to Port Townsend businesses desperate for customers.

Hammond said she is talking with the Coast Guard and a private ferry operator to see if service can be arranged from Port Townsend to Keystone until a better interim solution is found. Hammond also told members of the Port Townsend-Keystone Ferry Route Partnership Group that she is attracted to the idea of replacing the state’s four Steel Electric Class boats with 54-car ferries similar to the Steilacoom IIs used by Pierce County.

Those ferries were built by Nichols Bros. Boat Builders of Whidbey Island.

“I’m definitely leaning there,” Hammond said. “They’re the best option I see.”

The Steilacoom-class boats are smaller and slower than the Steel Electrics, but they likely could be built more rapidly than other ferries the state is considering, according to Washington State Ferries officials.

“It’s certainly a workable solution that could be started this afternoon if we wanted,” said Tacoma shipbuilder Joe Martinac Jr., who attended the Port Townsend meeting.

He urged Hammond and ferry officials to select a ferry quickly so shipbuilders can begin working on the new boats and get them in the water as soon as possible.

Hammond and ferry executives assured angry Port Townsend residents that they are working to bring vehicle-ferry service back to the community on an interim-basis long before new boats are built.

“We have zero intention of leaving the Port Townsend community and the surrounding communities on Whidbey Island without service until we get a vessel built,” said Traci Brewer-Rogstad, deputy director of the ferry system.

Ferry officials are looking into the plausibility of borrowing one of Pierce County’s car ferries to run between Keystone and Port Townsend. However, that vessel would probably not be ready for service until sometime in January, Brewer-Rogstad said.

As residents and partnership members brought up ideas, Hammond and ferry officials jotted them down, sometimes sending e-mails or running outside to make calls to investigate the suggestions.

“It’s crazy how we’re trying to piece together this when we have such a huge state agency involved,” said Port Townsend Deputy Mayor Michelle Sandoval. “We’re kind of Band-Aiding this together. It’s kind of frightening what else could go wrong.”

At one point, Hammond leaned toward Port Townsend resident Marcy Jaffe to look at a Greek ferry Jaffe found online with her laptop computer during the meeting.

Bringing a ferry from another country to Keystone would require an act of Congress or an emergency waiver from the Department of Homeland Security. Federal law prohibits foreign-flagged vessels from carrying people or freight between ports within U.S. waters.

Also on the table are the creation of new ferry routes from Port Townsend to Edmonds, from Clinton to Kingston and from Port Townsend to Clinton.

The proposed passenger-only ferry from Seattle would probably take 90 minutes each way on the catamaran-style Snoho­mish. It is expected to cost about $6 round trip.

State lawmakers in 2001 approved retiring the Steel Electrics, but ferry officials instead pursued plans to build boats too large to work as replacements.

Gregoire today was expected to discuss the status of a $348 million contract to construct those new 144-car ferries, which are expected to serve other routes, including Mukilteo.

The state has been negotiating terms of the contract with a consortium shipbuilders, including Todd Pacific Shipyards, Martinac and Nichols Bros. All of those same shipyards have told the state they are ready to build new ferries to replace the Steel Electrics.

Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com.