On Tuesday night, Mike Neussl of the Alaska Marine Highway System tried to spread oil on troubled waters.<\/p>\n
The 66 people listening to him did their best to light that oil on fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things we don\u2019t hear from those legislators up north is when they\u2019ll close the Parks Highway one or two days a week,\u201d said one man, raising his voice to interrupt Neussl\u2019s presentation.<\/p>\n
In the fifth of six presentations across Southeast and Southcentral Alaska, Neussl – head of the ferry system – outlined the problems facing the ferry system and for more than three hours heard an earful from Southeast residents upset about those problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cHang on a second – you guys are firing (questions) faster than I can answer them,\u201d Neussl said at one point to soft laughter.<\/p>\n
More often than not, the conversation was serious and, at times, emotional.<\/p>\n
Karla Hart was among those who spoke about the ferry system\u2019s impact on the tourism industry. \u201cIf I were trying to run a system into the ground, I would be doing just what you\u2019ve been doing,\u201d she said, describing how tour companies now deter RV drivers and independent travelers from using the ferry system because of its unpredictability.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe state constitution tells us … that everything belongs to us equally,\u201d said Albert Howard by phone from Angoon, \u201cyet other communities on a regular highway get a break. We pay the regular tire tax, we pay the gas tax … and then we pay for our ride to Juneau.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the past three fiscal years, the Marine Highway has seen a $27 million cut to its operations budget and a $3 million drop in its capital budget, which pays for required annual maintenance.<\/p>\n
The ferry system has gotten rid of bars and gift shops aboard ship, it\u2019s gotten rid of discounts, increased cancelation fees and cut nearly 30 shoreside positions.<\/p>\n
In 2016, the ferry Taku will stay docked all year, and in the summer, it may be joined by as many as three other ferries.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re running out of low-hanging fruit. There\u2019s no more bars to close, there\u2019s no more gift shops to close. … There\u2019s not a lot left,\u201d Neussl said.<\/p>\n
Later, speaking in response to a question about Angoon losing all service for a month this winter, he added, \u201cI think we\u2019re headed back to the days where there was one vessel for a particular area, and when that vessel goes out for maintenance, there\u2019s no service.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the things that is left is a fare change, which the state expects to partially implement in the next year. Unfortunately, Neussl said, the state can\u2019t charge tourists more than it does Alaskans. \u201cThe federal government frowns on us discriminating against other Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another change, suggested by ferry crews, involves simply slowing down.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the consistent messages we\u2019ve been getting … another way to save money is to slow down, Neussl said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to look at those things and try to reduce the 10 million gallons of fuel we burn each year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through various means, Neussl said, the Marine Highway expects to be able to bring one of the fast ferries back online to serve Sitka and Cordova this summer.<\/p>\n
In the longer term, the state may need to consider selling one or more of its ferries, likely the laid-up Taku first.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you all think of laying up a vessel in the Marine Highway System permanently?\u201d Neussl said.<\/p>\n
He added that during his tour of community meetings across the state, he\u2019s heard that people don\u2019t care how many ships are in the state\u2019s fleet or which ships serve which communities \u2015 they just want to make sure they get served.<\/p>\n
Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott is expected to convene a meeting in Juneau in February of delegates from across the state to further discuss the future of the Marine Highway, but Sen. Dennis Egan, sitting in the audience, cautioned that it will be difficult to get relief from the political process.<\/p>\n
Southeast Alaska and coastal Alaska in general doesn\u2019t have the numbers in the Legislature to keep funding secure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re rural versus roaded now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Tuesday night, Mike Neussl of the Alaska Marine Highway System tried to spread oil on troubled waters. The 66 people listening to him did their best to light that oil on fire. \u201cOne of the things we don\u2019t hear from those legislators up north is when they\u2019ll close the Parks Highway one or two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-4839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4839\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4839"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}