PORT TOWNSEND — The Port of Port Townsend will apply for a $1.5 million transportation grant to help establish a passenger ferry between Port Townsend and Seattle.
The grant, available from the Department of Transportation Maritime Administration division, would be added to the $1 million secured by Sen. Patty Murray, adding up to $2.5 million to provide initial funding for the ferry.
At a special meeting Monday morning, the port commissioners determined that the initial $1 million would not be enough to support the service through the startup period.
While exploring possibilities, the port found a used boat it could purchase and operate for $1 million, but the boat was sold elsewhere, according to Port Commissioner Dave Thompson.
The new grant request, which must be submitted by Friday, can only be allocated to a water route that has no competition, and it requires a 20 percent funding match.
It does not require a “green” design, but the port would like to use an ecologically responsible boat, according to its deputy director, Jim Pivarnik.
Pivarnik said a “Type 3” diesel engine would provide considerable energy savings, and the new boat could use solar panels to generate its onboard electricity.
Hybrid technology is not an option, Pivarnik said, because hybrid boat engines are not powerful enough to keep the Seattle to Port Townsend ride to fewer than 90 minutes.
To fulfill the matching requirement, the port could develop the now vacant Landfall restaurant site for use as a ferry terminal, Pivarnik said.
Building a new boat might delay the summer 2011 target date for beginning the service but would also supply a backup plan.
“There aren’t a lot of green boats around,” said Port Executive Larry Crockett.
“So it can become a demonstration project, and if the business fails, we will have a marketable product we can sell.”
The initial $1 million has not been received and will not be finalized until President Barack Obama approves the appropriations bill, expected in October.
Neither the original $1 million nor the new amount is certain, and the port commissioners, meeting Monday, had some discussion about asking for $1.5 million.
The figure was chosen because it along with Murray’s promise “is what we will need to buy a boat and keep it going for about two years,” Pivarnik said.
Commissioners John Collins and Leif Erickson voted in favor of pursuing the grant, while Thompson opposed it.
Thompson said he “is not a fan” of the proposal and does not think the idea is financially viable.
But his greatest objection is “that it serves the few.”
“I might support a money-losing proposition if it benefited the whole county,” he said.
“But this is a transportation subsidy for people who don’t need to be subsidized.”
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
