Is this another good reason to privitize?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : I-695 Thirty Dollar License Tab Initiative : One Thread

http://www.thesunlink.com/news/99december/daily/1215a2c.html

TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION Officials warn against eliminating foot ferry system By Ed Friedrich, Sun Staff

Members of the state Transportation Commission cautioned ferry officials not to dismantle the passenger-only program so much that it can't be brought back. However, they can't see its return to strength anytime soon.

Washington State Ferries, as part of its Initiative 695 cuts, plans to stop providing passenger-only service July 1. Not only will the boats be mothballed, leased or sold, those who run them will lose their jobs.

"We're going to literally dispose of any infrastructure that has any relation to passenger-only," Deputy Director Terry McCarthy told the Transportation Commission's ferries committee Monday. "We're going to dispose of our knowledge base."

That statement unnerved Tom Green, chairman of the ferry committee, who believes the agency should retain its technical capabilities.

"We have to make sure we don't throw the baby out with the bath water," he said. "Hopefully, we will not wipe out our basic abilities in an area important to our future. We need to be careful not to gut things too quickly."

During a series of recent public meetings, riders charged that the ferry system was giving up on the program. McCarthy said that with no means to develop the foot ferries the way WSF intended, the agency is better off without them.

A contract would have been signed by now to build five new fast ferries to go along with the Chinook and Snohomish. A new passenger-only terminal would be under construction in Seattle. Work was to start next year on terminals at Kingston and Southworth. Initiative 695 took away the funds to repay bonds for those projects.

Plus, a court-ordered slowdown of the fast ferries through Rich Passage renders them ineffective.

"We're not really interested in running that Mickey Mouse program we were running," McCarthy said. "If we thought we could run what people wanted, we'd be interested.

"Running the Skagit and Kalama as the centerpiece of the program is not too appealing."

Until legislators and voters approve a funding source to replace the motor vehicle excise tax that WSF was so dependent on, continuing passenger ferries isn't a viable option.

"We're facing such a severe problem, I think the current plan to take the passenger-only fleet off at this time is the only prudent thing we can do," Green said.

"I really believe the passenger-only program is very important to the future, but until we can see a light at the end of the tunnel for the whole system, we can't allow it to continue operating."

"If things look better six months after the session, after we start seeing where the legislators are going, then maybe we can engineer a way to get back into it or contract it.

"The ultimate decision-makers are the voters and the legislators, and right now who can predict what either body is going to do?"

Should WSF drop passenger ferries, Kitsap Transit and private operators are interested in picking them up. That doesn't sit well with the ferry workers' unions, whose members will lose jobs.

Dave Freiboth, president of the Inlandboatmen's Union, asked that ferry officials and ferry committee members give the Legislature a chance to work out a solution.

"Don't dismantle the system to where we can't build it back up," he said. "Ten years of work have gone into it.

"We're not going to stand by and let the problem be mitigated by private labor. We're not going to stand by and let our members be taken off the boats and somebody put back on at much less money and questionable safety."

Published in The Sun: 12/15/1999 Mr. Frieboth's attitude makes a very good case for privitization, don't you think? I am tired of Union arrogance in this state.

-- Marsha (acorn_nut@hotmail.com), December 15, 1999

Answers

The Dept. of Defense has tried this scam with the Seawolf class attack submarines. We don't have an enemy on the horizon worth building one to use against, but they want to keep building them to keep the welding skills up at Newport News or wherever.

I'm more of an advocate for national defense than I am for labor unions and if I resent DOD stupidity you can understand my upset here. Let me make my opinion crystal clear:

If passenger ferries are going to be run on Puget Sound, they ought to be payed for (capital and operating costs) BY THE USERS. I don't think the state ought to have a monopoly on ferry service at all (booze either, for that matter) but if they are announcing that they don't intend to participate in the foot ferry market it certainly ought to be open to anybody who meets Coast Guard requirements who DOES want to do so. Better yet, privatize car and foot ferries.

-- Mark Stilson (mark842@hotmail.com), December 15, 1999.


FOR SALE- PARTY BARGE Seats 350, sleeps 200 comfortably, or 300 uncomfortably. See picture (http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/fleet-guide/fg-12- Chinook.htm)

Built in 1998, these beauties sport four diesel engines totalling 7200 horsepower, enabling cruising speeds of up to 34 knots (if you keep out of Rich passage). Be the envy of your marina. Accepting bids for delivery after the first of the year.

Two available Contact: Surplus property disposal Washington State Ferries

(http://www.wa.gov/dnr/htdocs/rp/surplus/surplus0910.html)

-- (zowie@hotmail.com), December 17, 1999.


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