New borough ferry hits snag with Navy

PALMER — Though it’s being built as a military prototype, a ship being built in Ketchikan will be used by the borough as a ferry.

But that’s the rub — the Navy doesn’t want to pay for any of the seats or carpeting on the borough’s ferry. The Navy brass just wants to see how it’ll work as a landing craft for delivering tanks to war zones.

On Tuesday, the borough agreed to pay $900,000 to do the work to turn the military landing craft into a commuter ferry mostly making runs between Point MacKenzie and Anchorage. More than $818,000 of that comes from a federal grant the borough obtained to set up the ferry program. The remaining $81,000 and change will come from the borough’s general fund.

The borough’s owner’s representative for the ship, Lew Madden, showed up at the meeting to update the assembly on the progress made recently in the ship’s construction.

He said that since the ship is being designed as a fast-moving vessel, capable of making 20 knots, the Coast Guard is telling him the seats in the passenger compartments will need to be akin to those found on airplanes.

The Navy officer in charge of building the prototype mandated it be a fast ship, Madden said.

“His lack of regards for costs becomes our burden?” Assembly Member Tom Kluberton asked.

Madden said he’s working with the Coast Guard to maybe fix that snafu. The Coast Guard, he said, may let them put in less costly chairs like those found on most other Alaskan ferries if the borough can show it won’t be driving the ship as fast as it can go.

“If we can persuade them we’re going to do that, we may be able to save some money,” Madden said.

He said driving across the Knik Arm to Anchorage at that speed would be foolish — burning up gallons of extra fuel to save maybe five minutes in transit time.

Plus, he said, “you couldn’t stop in time.”

The assembly eventually passed the resolution allocating the $900,000 without objection.

“Will that finish the ship?” Assemblyman Mark Ewing asked Madden.

Madden said it would wrap up the borough’s end of things.

He also told the assembly that, with the ship due to be delivered in 2010, the borough will have to start putting some plans in place.

“We’re approaching the point where we’ll have to start talking about salaries, crews, crew size,” he said.

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