Ferry problem is a quandary

The M/V Susitna ice-breaking ferry has put the Mat-Su Borough in, to borrow a phrase from “The Simpsons” do-gooder Ned Flanders, a dilly of a pickle.

Essentially, to keep the boat and do nothing with it will cost at least $1.3 million per year. To walk away from the whole thing will cost roughly $20 million to repay federal grant money if the borough doesn’t establish a ferry system.

The ferry can’t make money without routes to serve, and so far the largest route, the one the borough had in mind all along, is a no-go. There are no landings either in Anchorage or Port MacKenzie that can handle cars coming on and off the dual-hulled military prototype.

It’s not the kind of problem the Mat-Su Borough or its residents would like to face.

To be fair, the current assembly contains few, if any, members who voted to start the ferry project. It’s an inherited problem, but it’s still a problem.

Just to back up a bit — the ferry has always been pitched as essentially free. The Navy builds prototypes such as this and then immediately junks them. The borough isn’t going to pay the Navy for it.

Likewise, money to get the ferry service going has so far come from federal grants. Grant money built the ferry terminal — which opened in 2007 and remains largely unused — in Point MacKenzie and paid to outfit the ship to handle civilian uses.

Former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens was one of the major backers behind building the ship, building it in Alaska and using it as a ferry. A lot of money the borough has spent on the ferry project had the late senator’s fingerprints on it.

But since then, Alaskans have replaced Stevens with U.S. Sen. Mark Begich.

Whatever Begich feels about the M/V Susitna now, he fought as mayor of Anchorage the Mat-Su Borough’s plans to land it at Ship Creek. He knows the project very well.

He has said he supports the ferry, just not the site where the Mat-Su Borough had proposed to build a dock for it on the Anchorage side.

But if he’s sought money for the landings he’s so far been unsuccessful.

So what do we do now?

Is there enough traffic hoping to avoid the long drive to the Kenai Peninsula to offset the costs to drive the ship there? How much revenue can the borough get from Tyonek, the tiny village on the other side of the Cook Inlet that is awaiting ferry service with baited breath?

There has been some talk of leasing the ship to offshore oil drillers in the Kenai Peninsula area to shuttle crew from the platform to shore. Helicopters do that work now but are often weathered out.

There’s got to be somebody out there that needs a boat this big and can pay the right price. Doesn’t there? Especially since the boat can break ice with its hulls and thus operate year-round.

For the sake of our borough’s budget and the wallets of local taxpayers, let’s hope so.