Borough seeks ways to ditch ferry

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough is steadily working on an answer to a question that has plagued it for months: what to do with the M/V Susitna ferry?

Most recently, the borough received three proposals June 8 from people who might want the ferry.

The borough put out a request for proposals regarding the ferry May 25. Talk around the assembly table of who might want the vessel included oil companies whose helicopter flights to offshore rigs are often hampered by the weather. But borough manager John Moosey said Monday his team hadn’t yet reviewed those proposals so he couldn’t say what three organizations are interested.

“Right now, the issue is do we have somebody who can use it that can cover the costs of the operation?” Moosey said.

Private companies aren’t the only ones the borough is courting.

“We also have been working with NUWCC, the Navel Under Water Warfare Command Center, to also potentially use the boat,” he said.

The ferry, which is currently docked in Ketchikan, was built as a military prototype. The borough didn’t pay any of its own money to receive the boat. But $20 million in federal money went into converting it to civilian use and building a terminal building on the Point MacKenzie side of Cook Inlet. The idea was to shuttle traffic to the Port of Anchorage.

If the borough doesn’t set up some kind of public transportation with that federal money, it could be liable to pay it all back. That’s why, while all this is ongoing, Moosey and his staff is also meeting with the Federal Transit Administration, which gave the borough that money.

“We’re working on the FTA where we received the grant money on what other options we have,” Moosey said.

The talks, he said, have been going well.

“I’m pleasantly surprised,” Moosey said. “It doesn’t mean they’re going to let us walk, because they’re not, but they understand our situation where we’re at and I’m thinking we’re going to have the best outcome we can, because they’re being very cooperative.”

The ferry issue is also on the radar screen of Sen. Mark Begich. The senator’s spokeswoman, Julie Hasquet, said Begich is involved in those negotiations Moosey mentioned.

“We have been working with the borough, the FTA and the Navy to find a use for the ferry that would satisfy the borough’s obligations,” Hasquet said.

Begich is also “constantly thinking about” the ship, Hasquet said.

“He brings it up in meetings with various agencies as to whether they might have a use for that vessel,” Hasquet said.

All of this talk about what to do with the ferry seems to imply it won’t be making runs between Anchorage and Point MacKenzie. So the ferry idea is dead, right? Not quite. The borough is still working to try and make that happen as well, but the outlook is grim.

“Our challenge is we need landings on both Anchorage and at Port Mac. We are in the process on getting approval on Ship Creek over in Anchorage,” Moosey said.

Anchorage’s waterfront is crowded. There aren’t a lot of places to tie up a passenger boat, especially considering that the Port of Anchorage doesn’t want civilians moving through secure and dangerous port operations.

“The borough has tried numerous options and it has all come down to making Ship Creek work,” the manager said.

But Ship Creek has its own troubles. There are some pretty unfavorable reports on that plan from various agencies. The borough is working through those.

“Even when we get the approval we need multi-millions of dollars, in the area of $30 million, to make this happen,” Moosey said. “I don’t see $30 million in the crystal ball coming to us.”

As to how much longer the borough has to wait to figure this thing out, Moosey said the borough assembly has put him on a tight timeline, giving him the summer, but only begrudgingly.

“They gave me June and July on a very skinny vote, I’m thinking our time is near,” he said.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.