I believe it was around 1990 when the Dept. of Labor and Industries came to the Guemes ferry and cited Skagit County for violations due to the fact that the employee break room and shop were one in the same. When that happened, the County moved a temporary building for our shop and then enclosed the current caged area so that we would have an area for storage. Now, 18 years later the County is finally getting around to fixing a temporary solution that has continued to grow even bigger.

Approximately 2 years ago the County had a building designed for the gravel area that has been utilized as a parking area next to the marina. This building was 10ft. wide and 70ft. long and encompassed a manager’s office, parts storage, mechanics shop and outside storage area. Upon further review, it was decided that this building was just another temporary fix to an overall site plan problem that had not taken into account all aspects of ferry operations.

So, finally after a few meetings and brain storming sessions and taking into account the entire facility and operations for the next 25 to 30 years, it was decided to come up with the current plan. We had a few goals that we needed to incorporate. They included but were not limited to consolidating all the outbuildings into one central location, put the facility on dry land and off of the dock area and alleviate congestion on 6th street.

The reason for taking the entire terminal building and other building's off of the dock area is that we have some corrosion issues with the pre-stressed concrete girders that support the area where all the building are located. In the next few years we will be doing some major refurbishment work to take care of these issues. Our ability to put the terminal building and other buildings back out over the water is highly unlikely with the current shoreline regulations which will likely become even more restrictive in the future. So it was decided to go forward and complete this phase in today’s dollars rather than to wait and have a more expensive and inclusive project 5 years down the road.

Yes, we are going to lose some parking spaces, but we are doing our best to mitigate the loss of these spaces. For instance, we are creating 4 new spaces in the K avenue parking lot. I am not sure of the exact net loss of parking, but it could be up to 15 spaces should we decide to fully implement the 2 lane staging area for vehicles. If we do not implement the 2 lane staging area, the net loss of parking spaces would be 5 to 7 spaces. We are very serious about relieving congestion on 6th street with the 2 lane staging area.

I have monitored the K avenue parking lot area for the last 3 months, every morning, Mon-Fri. The result has been an average of 20 empty parking spaces per day; with as many as 32 and as little as 15 empty spaces daily. So at this point, we do have plenty of parking available, but this is not to say that parking issues for the future are not being looked at. It is very clear that parking is and will always be an issue.

The new terminal building will help us to address most, if not all, of the issues we have with the current facility and this will allow us to move forward through the next 25 to 30 years and to stay Dept. of Labor & Industry compliant.

This will be accomplished having relatively the same size passenger waiting area as we have now. However we will have more seating due to the configuration of the area.

A purser’s office that will have 2 separate spaces so that the daily shift change that occurs can be done away from the noise and bustle of the employee break room. This will also allow all pursing requirements to be in one central and separate location thus improving our security and accuracy.

All of the spare parts storage that is currently in one of the outbuildings will be in the lower part of the terminal as well as the shop for the vessel and facility maintenance. This shop will also bring us up to current Labor & Industries standards for our mechanic. This section alone eliminates 2 of our out buildings and most of the storage in the caged area. By the way, both of the small buildings that the mechanic works out of are falling apart.

The following is a list of activities that happen in the terminal building that will be improved.

Mechanics office work such as phone calls, filing, layout for projects and meetings. The Mechanic’s activities encompass all aspects of vessel and facility maintenance with regular meetings that require a professional setting without all the distractions. The distraction come from the fact that the mechanic’s office is the employee break room (see photo). The Mechanic's shop that we have is inadequate (see photo) for the type of work that is being done to maintain the vessel and facilities.

Pursing activities at shift change require that the purser pull all paper work and cash from the purser’s office and spread it out over Mechanics desk in the employee break room assuming the mechanic is not working there. Otherwise they must use the employee dining table. The new building will take all of these activities and keep them in a central and secure location which helps us to follow our own auditing requirements.

The crew quarters will be located on the second floor and over looking the vessel. Having this ability to see the vessel at all times is anticipated to be a Homeland Security issue in the near future.

Offices on the second floor for the manager, mechanic and a conference room for meetings and training sessions are all long overdue and are vital to daily operation. This will help to eliminate an additional outbuilding on the dock area.

As one last and final note, encouraging walk-on passengers is one of the goals of the ferry system. Part of this goal would be making it more convenient to use Skagit Transit (SKAT). I think that utilizing the area where the current terminal is located as a possible area where the SKAT bus could be parked, may be a good idea. This will take community, Public Works and SKAT to work out the details for this long range plan.

I hope I have given enough information to put the community a little more at ease with the idea that this project has been 18 years in the making and is part of a long range plan that is long overdue. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.

Sincerely,

Ron Panzero
Guemes Ferry Operations Manager