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Later this week, the Legislature will convene for its third (and hopefully very brief) special session to pass a capital budget. Negotiations with the Senate have been completed and I’m confident that a compromised version of the capital budget will pass out of both bodies. It will meet the minimum needs of the state and it’s residents in terms of infrastructure investment. Most generally, the capital budget is how we fund investment in Alaska’s infrastructure for transportation (including the AMHS) and our natural resource development. Over...
As expected, it’s been a challenging legislative session, and from here on, the budget will be the forefront of every discussion. Both the House and the Senate are creating Alaska’s budget, but it’s clear that the bodies have differing approaches. Last week, I wrote a letter explaining the House approach to resolving Alaska’s fiscal crisis. To recap, the House proposed budget is $81.7 million in General Funds less than our current fiscal year. State agencies have been reduced by $62 million. Despite these cuts, the House Majority Coaliti...
When Southeast Conference meets for its annual Mid-Session Summit in Juneau later this month, among the items high on its list for discussion is the structural reform of Alaska's ferry system. Southeast Alaskans have become dependent on the state's Marine Highway System since its establishment in 1959, essentially becoming their road network into and out of the region. It is a significant economic driver for the coastal communities it services as well, with an estimated impact of just over $103...
PETERSBURG — State Senator Bert Stedman predicts the legislature will be in session for a full 120 days with an additional 30 day session if they are to complete their work this session. “There’s a lot of talk of the 90 day session but the constitution calls for 121 days. “We’ve only finished in 90 days one time,” Stedman noted. Stedman was in Petersburg this past weekend to attend the Chamber of Commerce Annual Banquet along with his wife Lureen. Stedman said there is a “near zero chance of a 90 day session with any quality work being accompl...
The M/V Matanuska will be sailing on an altered schedule into next week, according to the Alaska Marine Highway System. Due to problems with one of the vessel’s engines, it remained overnight in Ketchikan for repairs. It resumed its course Monday, but will be running on a delayed timetable through December 20, when it departs from Ketchikan for its evening stop in Wrangell. Its scheduled northbound stop into Wrangell was bumped to Wednesday at 7:15 a.m. On its southbound leg, the ferry is due into port again Friday at 4:45 p.m., arriving a...
The Alaska Marine Highway System announced its schedule for the coming summer was ready. The finalized schedule essentially remained the same as a proposal put forward earlier this fall, with an overall 10-week service reduction to operations from the previous summer, down to around 325 operating weeks overall. “We’re pretty much going forward with what was put out,” explained Jeremy Woodrow, AMHS public information officer. The schedule is based on expected funding levels for the 2018 fiscal year, and reflects input collected from the publi...
The state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities announced Tuesday a proposed ferry schedule for the coming summer. The schedule patterns being proposed for the Alaska Marine Highway System would cover sailings from May through September. The schedule is based on expected funding levels for the 2018 fiscal year. It would feature an overall 10-week service reduction to operations, down to around 325 operating weeks. “It’s pretty consistent,” explained Jeremy Woodrow, public information officer for ADOTP&F. Service to Wrangell would...
Repairs to the Alaska Marine Highway System’s M/V Columbia are going to take longer than anticipated and it won’t return to service this year, according to Jeremy Woodrow, Alaska Department of Transportation spokesman. The ferry headed for dry dock in Oregon at the end of September to be looked over after divers in Wrangell reported a bent starboard propeller. After arriving in Oregon, the damage turned into much more, and the vessel will take around six weeks to repair, Woodrow says. “Upon dry dock inspection it was discovered that the prope...
The Alaska Marine Highway System’s M/V Columbia is scheduled for a trip to Oregon for repairs after divers noticed a bent starboard propeller late last week, according to Jeremy Woodrow, Alaska Department of Transportation spokesman. “Not a huge bend, but there was a noticeable bend,” he said. “That was the only visible damage the divers noticed.” Earlier in the week, the vessel was traveling Lynn Canal to Haines or Skagway when those onboard noticed a vibration. Soon after, it was discovered the vibration happened when the vessel exceeded...
A steering committee has been selected to head up restructuring of the Alaska Marine Highway System. In May the office of Gov. Bill Walker tasked regional economic forum Southeast Conference with revitalizing the state’s maritime transportation network, a two-phase process which will involve looking both at its organizational structure and business model. To that end, a committee representing AMHS’ varied user base was selected from around 25 applicants. “We had quite a few names to choose from,” commented Robert Venables, transpo...
Alaska’s state ferry system is embarking on a journey to make itself more financially viable over the next 25 years, as a process to refocus and possibly restructure, spearheaded by Southeast Conference. Representing the region’s economic interests, the SEC was first started 58 years ago in order to support establishment of what would become the Alaska Marine Highway System. Appropriately enough then, the organization will help to steer that regional transportation network into the future, after a memorandum of understanding to that effect was...
A draft for the Alaska Marine Highway System’s post-summer schedule was released last week. AMHS general manager Captain John Falvey Jr. reported the new schedule will be based on expected funding levels for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. Presently, the ferry intends to run 330.2 operating weeks for nine of its vessels; the Taku and Chenega will both be on layup for much of the next fiscal year as cost saving measures. Entering its second year of inactivity, the Taku may be on the road to divestment. “We’ve announced this briefly,...
Stopping in Wrangell last week, District 36 Rep. Dan Ortiz (I-Ketchikan) was able to share with the Sentinel some his perspectives on how the state's current budget negotiations are headed. House Bill 256 and Senate Bill 139 are each chamber's proposal for a state budget, which currently is set to exhaust the Statutory Budget Reserve and draw from the Congressional Budget Reserve, which at current spending levels may run out by 2019. The CBR fund is where all oil tax settlement revenues are...
Local spending appears to have dropped substantially during the last holiday season. The latest sales tax figures collected by the City and Borough of Wrangell indicated that for the 2016 fiscal year’s second quarter – or from October through December 2015 – only $506,216 in sales taxes were collected, a 16-percent drop over the corresponding period the previous year. Sales tend to be lower through the third quarter than the second, picking up again during the spring and summer seasons. So in 2015, from January to March the city colle...
KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) – A newly released study found that every dollar put into the Alaska Marine Highway System has double the economic benefit to Alaska. The state contributed $117 million in general funds to the ferry system in 2014. The report from the McDowell Group, which was funded by the ferry system, shows that the total economic impact was $273 million, The Ketchikan Daily News reported. According to the study, the ferry system is responsible for 1,017 jobs and indirectly responsible for 683 jobs, which would be for people e...
The Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) on Tuesday announced the release of its upcoming summer schedule, covering May through September. The release of the schedule also coincides with the implementation of the new reservations and manifest system. AMHS has planned a phased implementation of the new reservations system starting with the reservations call center, then followed by online reservations for summer travel. Implementation will continue with new hardware installations in terminals and aboard vessels through the spring. The system...
The Alaska Department of Transportation (ADOT) has cancelled the scheduled summer sailings of the M/V LeConte that would have utilized the South Mitkof ferry terminal near Petersburg due to maintenance-related delays of the Alaska Marine Highway System’s (AMHS) vessels. Once a month sailings from May to September between Juneau, South Mitkof and Coffman Cove were planned to show the terminal was being used for its intended purpose and to avoid possible penalties or having to pay back federal funds used to construct the terminal. “We built tho...
Five of Alaska Marine Highway System’s 11 ferries will be laid up at some point next year under a draft vessel deployment plan released on June 24. The Taku will be held in layup status the whole year, while the Kennicott will be from October until entering overhaul in early January. The Fairweather and Chenega will enter federal projects in October and mid-September, respectively, and will both be laid up starting in May 2016. The Malaspina is also scheduled to enter layup status in late May of next year. Under the draft schedule, from O...
In the works for awhile, Rainforest Islands Ferry Service has been delayed yet again. The ferry was set to sail June 14, then postponed to June 28. “We were so close” to that start, spokeswoman Heather Hedges said, but work at the shipyard was delayed. The 65-foot landing craft made its way up to Ketchikan from Anacortes, Wash. on Monday and sea trials have just begun with another U.S. Coast Guard inspection scheduled. The first delay was due to a wait on USCG certification. “As long as everything goes smoothly,” Hedges said, service is expe...
The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT) announced this week that Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) ferry service for summer 2015 will proceed as scheduled with the exception of one significant revision. Governor Walker restored funding to the AMHS fiscal year 2016 operating budget by allocating $5.5 million of unused fiscal year 2015 fuel trigger funds. The additional funding allows for ferry service to run as previously scheduled, with the exception that the M/V Taku will not sail in July and August this year. “T...
While the threat of service reductions looms over the Alaska Marine Highway System as the Legislature devises its budget, starting this summer travelers will at least have another option to hop between islands in the area. The North End Ferry Authority (NEFA) in Coffman Cove is starting up Rainforest Islands Ferry, a three-stop service between Wrangell, Petersburg and Prince of Wales Island. Beginning June 14, the ferry's new public passenger-vehicle service will connect stops at Coffman Cove,...
From the beginning of this legislative session, everyone knew the $3.5 billion budget deficit would be the driving force behind nearly all legislative considerations. With oil tax revenue making up over 90% of all state revenue, and oil prices dropping from an average of $110 a barrel to approximately $50 a barrel, there was no escaping the necessity of making some extremely difficult budget reductions. The decisions made in each legislative committee resulted in budget cuts across the board to all regions of the state. However, because of the...
KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) – The Kennicott, a ferry in the Alaska Marine Highway System, set sail earlier this month from the Ketchikan Shipyard with more than $13 million in repairs and refurbishments complete. The ferry, which underwent work over the past two winters at the shipyard, is returning to service after undergoing extensive upgrades on systems ranging from electrical, refrigeration and information technology to the vehicle elevator. The project also included adding heated windows to the bridge and a main engine overhaul, according to T...
As legislators in Juneau prepare a budget for the state's next fiscal year, Alaska residents have been urged to contribute their say as cuts are considered. Since the Legislative session began on Jan. 20, lawmakers have been weighted with the task of finding ways to address a more than $3.6 billion deficit. To that end, the State House was looking at making a nearly 10 percent, or about $240 million, cut from state spending over the previous fiscal year. Among areas affected by the cuts would be capital improvements, education, transportation,...
Leave our highway open Despite the proposed statewide budget cuts, our legislators will not close paved highways elsewhere in the state. Likewise, they won’t restrict two-lane highways down to a single lane. But that will be the effect of a proposal by a legislative subcommittee that is proposing a 10-percent cut to the Alaska ferry system. Some proposals call for taking ferries out of service, including replacement vessels that go into service when vessels are taken out of service for repairs or annual Coast Guard required overhauls. Southeast...
