Ferry draws Outside interest

PALMER — Add Los Angeles and Seattle to the list of possible new homes for the M/V Susitna ferry.

Emerson Krueger, a planner at the Mat-Su Borough who has become the point man for the ferry, said the Los Angeles County idea involves putting the vessel to work for its intended use making runs to Catalina Island.

“First and foremost, they want to make it available to move passengers and vehicles to the island,” Krueger said.

It’s also something the Los Angeles County is considering as an emergency vehicle.

“They had a big fire on Catalina Island awhile back and the county had no asset to evacuate the island of its own. They had to call in the Navy to help with the evacuation,” Krueger said. “This would be an LA County asset that they would have control over and they could redirect from transiting the island to the mainland if something were to happen.”

Actually, that wouldn’t be the first time someone had seen the ferry as a possible asset in an emergency. Proponents of the ferry early on touted its ability to respond if a plane leaving Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage went down in Cook Inlet.

“When that happens, unfortunately, and I think it’s inevitable, we’ll wish we had it,” Krueger said.

The Susitna currently sits in Ketchikan, where it was built as a prototype of a military landing craft. The borough intended to put it into use as a ferry shuttling passengers and vehicles between Point MacKenzie and Anchorage, but money to build a landing in Anchorage never materialized. Without that money, the federal government put a hold on funds to build a landing on the Point MacKenzie side.

Meanwhile, the borough assembly has fallen out of love with the ship and is insisting that the borough get out from underneath it sooner rather than later. A recent vote to pay the monthly upkeep costs nearly failed to get a majority vote with members seeming to vote against it mostly as a way to protest that it hadn’t yet been sold.

But the borough can’t walk away or it would have to pay back $12 million the federal government provided to set up the ferry service. The Federal Transit Authority has said that it would let the borough off the hook if the vessel went to another government agency. The borough has to check with the FTA, though, to see if the government body qualifies under the agency’s rules.

“Unfortunately, that process is taking a lot longer than I thought it would,” Krueger said.

The other letter of interest came from Seattle Central Community College and the Seattle Maritime Academy.

“They’d be using it for education,” Krueger said.

The college would use the vessel to teach students hoping to enter the Merchant Marines.

Seattle and Los Angeles are the latest communities to express interest and are the two that have put their ideas for the vessel in writing with the borough.

“There has been all kinds of interest generated, just very little interest from entities that have the follow-through to make it happen,” Krueger said.

The vessel, though fast and state-of-the-art, has its drawbacks. For one thing, it’s relatively small. It can carry just 20 cars. Most Alaska Marine Highway System ferries carry at least 36, sometimes as many as 80.

“It’s a little small for a ferry and it’s not really a vessel with a commercial purpose. It was never really intended to be a vessel for private gain,” Krueger said.

Still, the borough isn’t shutting the door on private enterprise. It is soliciting bids through noon, March 29. The sale price would likely at least have to cover the borough’s liability to the federal government, since this option would leave it on the hook for repayment.

The state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities also is evaluating the vessel to see if it can be used as part of the Alaska Marine Highway System.

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