By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
With the M/V Matanuska still in harbor for repairs a month after it was scheduled to return to service, the Alaska Marine Highway System has contracted with two Southeast Alaska companies to provide interim ferry service in northern Southeast communities.
Passenger vessels operated by Allen Marine of Sitka and Goldbelt of Juneau are sailing to fill some AMHS service gaps, said Department of Transportation spokesperson Sam Dapcevich.
He said the fill-in service will end when the Matanuska is back on line, but may be called up again if needed, since the contracts extend to the end of the year.
“So, for instance, the LeConte is in overhaul right now. If the LeConte wasn’t able to return on time for whatever reason, we would have that option to call up as-needed,” Dapcevich told the Sentinel.
The ferry system anticipates the Matanuska “will be up and running at the end of this month,” he said.
On short notice to the public, an Allen Marine boat made a trip from Juneau to Hoonah and Pelican Jan. 19 with fewer than 10 passengers.
“There wasn’t a lot of advance notice… but people in Pelican were aware of it,” Dapcevich said.
This week, Goldbelt will operate several different routes out of Juneau to service Haines, Skagway, Gustavus, Tenakee and Angoon. Goldbelt is an Alaska Native corporation in Juneau.
Haines Borough Manager Annette Kreitzer said she’s grateful for the interim ferry service, but in the long run, ferry sailings need to be dependable.
“For people who are trying to get to medical appointments, certainly it’s something for them to be able to do that on the 24th and the 29th,” Kreitzer told the Sentinel Friday.
“It’s a help, but I’m not sure that it’s really going to help people get over to Juneau for appointments and they’re still going to have to spend money to stay in hotels and rent a vehicle, because Goldbelt won’t be able to take vehicles.”
Unlike the AMHS ships, the Allen Marine and Goldbelt vessels aren’t equipped to carry cars.
“What I hear from people who have lived here for a while is that the disruption in the ferry service has caused some families to move from Haines,” said Kreitzer, who moved to Haines in October to take over as borough manager.
“As we all know, the cost of transportation, the cost of fuel has gone up, and when you add one more thing, which is unstable transportation, that just puts some families on the other side of a decision where they would have stayed if not for all of these factors,” she said.
With a Goldbelt vessel making round trips from Juneau to Haines and Skagway Monday and Saturday, Goldbelt transportation manager Clint Songer said he sees the use of smaller boats as a long-term solution.
“It’s a really collaborative process to allow Southeast Alaska-based companies to serve our communities and fill this gap,” Songer told the Sentinel. “We have a goal to continue to let commerce function, to let people get to their doctor appointments, their dentist appointments, to allow all of the normal course of business, goods and services to flow between the communities.”
The Alaska Marine Highway System “was kind of at a standstill, so we’re really excited to see this growth, because we see this as a long-term solution to a long-term problem. The cost of running the big boats, the old boats, isn’t going away and we need a reliable, less expensive method to get people from smaller communities to larger communities on a predictable basis.”
Using passenger-only boats like the ones now under temporary contract “is a sustainable model,” he said.
He described his vision for ferry service in Southeast as “a hub-and-spoke system.”
As for the cost of the contracted sailings, Dapcevich said Goldbelt’s Juneau-Hoonah-Gustavus route costs $5,390; the Juneau-Tenakee-Angoon service totals $6,860 per voyage; and Allen Marine’s Juneau-Hoonah-Pelican sailing last week cost $7,999.
Dapcevich said DOT is considering a contract with Allen Marine for as-needed ferry service between Juneau and Sitka as well.
Meanwhile, AMHS is in the process of finding crew members needed to put the M/V Tazlina back in ferry service next month.
“We’re supposed to have an update… on the crewing status if we’re getting close to reaching that goal, but I don’t have an update yet,” he said.
The AMHS sailing schedule is posted on dot.alaska.gov. Tickets can be purchased online or at the dock.
