| Outside the Lines: Ferry Tales XXXX Zero Plus Zero Skagit County and Guemes Island Ferry Committee crunched numbers on the cost of the Guemes Ferry’s extended hours. The results warranted two articles in the Skagit Valley Herald, one story makes the paper’s front page. The formula and data may differ, but the end results remain the same. It makes no difference if the loss is $5/run, $42/run or $342/run. The system is losing money with no end in sight [$1.5 million last fiscal year]. And, as all previous surveys and studies on the subject have shown, the majority of islanders are still opposed to the extended evening hours. The Skagit County Board of Commissioners is supposedly “taking a long hard look at last years controversial decision to extend the island’s ferry service”, according to the SVH. They each have their own reasons for this. Don Munks is not necessarily in favor of eliminating evening hours. He seems to think if Guemes Islanders are off the island later, they are either spending or earning more money in Skagit County. Ken Dahlstedt questions the need for extended hours, when an occaisional second or third 6 pm run could clear the staging area and get everyone back to the island when needed. {this worked for how many years?} Sharon Dillon seems to have a better grasp of the extended hours cost to the county and the additional costs for an environmental study {Judge Allendoerfer’s ruling in the FGI vs. Skagit County decision} needed to make those hours permanent. Skagit County shouldn’t squander more of taxpayer’s money for another study. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read that the BOCC is actually asking for island input and involvement before they make a decision to continue or abandon the later runs. Guemes needs to jump on the opportunity {yet again} to do this. Write letters and send email. A decision by the BOCC may be coming down to the wire on this highly volatile and divisive issue. If you have done this, in the past, do it again. We need the BOCC to come to the realization that extending the hours was a poor decision that must be remedied. Waiting another year until that trial period expires is unnecessary and costly to Guemes and to the county. Commentary by MJ Andrak [7.30.7] Send a message to the Commissioners, Public Works Director and ferry manager.
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