Yellow Pages
The freshman state senator from San Juan Island has distinguished himself in the current legislative session as being a quick study on a wide range of issues. Given the glowing accolades he’s been getting from both sides of the aisle, he may have come to believe that he is incapable of mistakes.
But our otherwise bright and capable Sen. Kevin Ranker proposes to waste $200,000 in taxpayers’ money to pay a consultant to tell us why the ferries are late when the answers are right in front of us. His special concern is the Anacortes-Friday Harbor run, which has apparently inconvenienced him a bit too often.
Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, was Ranker’s enabler by including the funding request in the proposed transportation budget.
Ferry management, crews and passengers know well what makes the San Juan Island runs later than any other route except for Keystone-Port Townsend, especially during the summer.
An Anacortes ferry staffer summed it up neatly in a recent post to goskagit.com:
“More people are using the ferry system. Many people do not know how do drive and or park, campers, boats, motor homes, construction trucks, ferry breakdowns, medical emergencies, crew and passenger sickness, some passengers need extra assistance, DUI drivers, missing drivers, vehicles will not start sometimes, lost car keys, lost kids, lost parents, heavy boat traffic on the water, packages left unattended, asleep drivers, passengers with questions, vehicle accidents, bomb threats, and these are only some of the delays we face every run.”
Well said.
The San Juan Islands run is different from any other in the state system. All others are commuter-oriented — from point to point without any stops in between. And those routes don’t have anything like the challenges faced every day on the San Juan Islands run.
San Juan Islands ferries cross sometimes choppy, open water and make as many as three stops. The run is not and never has been operated for the primary convenience of commuters. Most islanders understand that when they move to the San Juans.
In a press release, Ranker expressed concern for the effect of long ferry waits on the regional economy.
But the one biggest economic boost the Anacortes-Friday Harbor route brings to the area economy is not truckloads of goods, but ferries packed with vacationing families, filling most runs to capacity. What comes with the big loads is even more waiting time.
With a state budget that is $2.8 billion in deficit, every dollar counts and every new proposed expenditure must be carefully considered. We saw little consideration by way of hearings or public debate before it was decided that a consultant study was the way to go.
The Legislature should put that $200,000 toward more crucial needs.
Editorials reflect the consensus opinion of the editorial board and are written by its members: Publisher L. Stedem Wood and newsroom editors Dick Clever and Colette Weeks. Signed columns reflect the authors’ viewpoints.
Read more local news in the Skagit Valley Herald and the Anacortes American, or read it online in the E-edition
