To the Editor:
Do you know who is running the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) into the ground? Captain John Falvey, the General Manager of AMHS, a graduate of the Maine Maritime Academy spent 25 years operating offshore deep-sea oil tankers for the Union Oil Company of California and went on to operate fast ferries for 5 years as a high-speed code type rated Captain in both New England and South American waters.
Two northern Alaska Republican Legislators pushed for the fast ferries even though British Columbia and Hawaii told them fast ferries wouldn’t work in Southeast or any other body of water in Alaska, yet they broke the back of AMHS in breakdowns, fuel costs, and design flaws. Why didn’t we hire a former Alaskan ferry captain, tugboat, or commercial fisherman from Alaska who knows our water, tides, and extreme conditions?
AMHS has vessels they are trying to sell. How about cut per diem and house the House of Representatives and Senate, and all aides and stay on the ferry? Tie it up in downtown Juneau and have their meals. Let’s close the roads to Fairbanks and Homer with no road maintenance, build a tollbooth and charge them for their highway. No more free rides for oil, legislators, or gas companies. They must pay to take our natural resources or ride the ferry.
Make all the mining corporations pay to extract our gold, lead, zinc, etc. Do not vote for any of the politicians that have a conflict of interest or can’t walk across the aisle and agree to work out a budget. Back to the 120 days session and they can’t leave until they get rid of stupid, outdated bills and introduce bills that matter like the political corruption, meth, heroin and opioid epidemic and the homeless issues. The Legislature needs to pay the $37M for the Legislative Information Office in downtown Anchorage. Streamline all State of Alaska Departments and unload mid-managers.
An Alaskan tired of corrupt politicians holding Alaska hostage and turning Alaska residents into criminals in order to finance police training and a court system that is broken.
Loretto Jones
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