PORT TOWNSEND — The Steilacoom II ferry will remain running on the Port Townsend-Keystone route through midnight Dec. 31, the state’s ferry director said Tuesday.
The announcement eased tension in a business community that endured a holiday season without car ferry service in 2007.
David Moseley, deputy Transportation secretary for Washington State Ferries, told the Port Townsend-Keystone Ferry Partnership Group on Tuesday that the Steilacoom II will sail the route “until the last moment we can,” saying Pierce County had already extended the required Coast Guard maintenance period and could not extend it beyond year’s end.
“At this point, unless I can find a boat, the service will be passenger ferry only” during January, Moseley said.
The ferries chief said no car ferry is available in the U.S., either for lease or for sale.
Moseley said he has looked to British Columbia’s fleet — and as far away as Greece — for another vessel despite the Jones Act, which prohibits foreign vessels from operating in U.S. waters unless an emergency waiver is granted by Congress.
City Manager David Timmons, Mayor Michelle Sandoval and others with the partnership group pleaded for up to another week’s extension to absorb New Year’s Day holiday and allow visitors to return home before the ferry is dry- docked.
That is unlikely, Moseley said, but he agreed to pass along their request to Coast Guard officials.
With passenger ferry service likely Jan. 1, Sandoval asked, “When are we going to know about the service? Because I think it’s imperative that we know.”
Timmons said, “We’re hearing from a number of businesses and they’re all panicking.”
A special meeting of the Lodging Tax Advisory committee has been called on Oct. 28 to discuss marketing Port Townsend during the holiday season to let regional shoppers know the city is open for business, Timmons said.
Leonard Smith, state ferries operations manager, said plans for passenger-only ferry service during the Steilacoom II service interruption must be made with private contractors, perhaps Port Townsend-based Puget Sound Express or Port Angeles-based Victoria Express.
Sandoval and Coupeville Mayor Nancy Conard asked that larger passenger ferries be used.
“People complained last year,” Sandoval said. “They thought it was too rough.”
Smith said a barge would have to be added to the landing at Keystone and a landing dock would have to be established in Port Townsend, perhaps City Dock, Union Wharf or one of the Port of Port Townsend marinas.
“I think it should come together fairly quickly,” said Smith, who coordinated the successful ferry reservation program in Port Townsend.
Ferry scraped
The Steilacoom II’s side was scraped by a floating dolphin at the Port Townsend landing.
The state brought in a crane barge and crew Tuesday to modify the dolphin.
After that, the barge will be moved to be used in repairs of City Dock, which has a dolphin with lose cables, city officials said.
Moseley raised another concern that Port Townsend could again lose Pierce County’s Steilacoom II service when the state’s lease expires in August during peak tourism season.
He added that while Pierce County officials want their ferry back he expects that “they will be accommodating.”
Moseley reported that the Nov. 6 bid opening was on track for two 64-care Island Home-style ferries, and that the first of the two could be under construction by late November or early December after a contract is awarded.
Moseley said a pre-bid meeting drew six ship builders, two of which have expressed interest in delivering bids.
Two yards could be used to expedite building the new vessels at once, but ferries officials aid that there was a difficulty in securing surety bonding for building two ferries at once.
An early-completion bonus $15,000 a day is written into the bid proposal, which could result in a fall 2010 completion for the second vessel, officials said.
The first boat would be completed by May 2010.
Partnership group member Tim Snider asked what if the bids were too high, as was the case for a proposed 50-car ferry to quickly replace the Steilacoom II?
Moseley said the state would be forced to build one boat and go back to the state Legislature for more money.
State Ferries leased the Steilacoom II in January to partly compensate for the loss of the more than 80-year-old Steel Electric ferries that state Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond pulled from service in November last year, citing unsafe hulls.
The Steel Electrics are heading to Mexico in November to be scrapped, Moseley said.
The ferries chief asked, to mixed reactions, if selling the naming rights to the new ferries would be acceptable.
Bridge closure
With the state Department of Transportation planning to close the Hood Canal Bridge during May-June 2009 construction, the idea of a Port Townsend-Edmonds commercial ferry run has been important to North Olympic Peninsula trucking operations, including Port Townsend Paper Corporation’s mill.
Smith said he met with representatives of Port Townsend Paper, Nippon mill in Port Angeles and Boise Cascade to discuss such an option.
Smith said the only vessel that would handle commercial trucks would be the ferry Sealth out of Edmonds, which has no upper deck ramps.
The vessel would operate between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. before returning to the Edmonds-Kingston run.
All trucks of 82 feet and 105,000 pounds would be considered, he said, and between four and eight trucks would be possible for ferry transport.
The run would take an hour and 45 minutes, he said.
Smith called the proposal to pull truck trailers onto the ferry without their tractors “a logistic nightmare” that could take an hour and a half on each end of the run to remove the trailers.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com
