Minutes

Guemes Island Ferry Committee

Working Meeting of March 6, 2003

 

 

Meeting Commenced:  7:00 PM

Committee Members Present:

1.       Carl Cady

2.       Glen Veal

3.       Marilee Fosbre

4.       Dixon Elder

5.       Steve Orsini

Agenda Items:

1.       Agenda for the 3/8/03 meeting with Skagit County Public Works Department

2.       Questions to the Committee from Linetime.org

3.       GIFC report to the Community Council

4.       Curbing abuse of non-transferable ferry passes

5.       Publicizing the 3/30/03 Quarterly Public Meeting

Agenda Discussions:

1.       The Committee has requested that two agenda items be added to the 3/30/03 meeting with the Public Works Department.  The first agenda item is a review of the decision to do the haul-out before school is out for the summer.  This decision is contary to a long standing precedent to do the haul out when school is closed due to safety concerns for the children.  The Committee will ask the Public Works Department to explain the reasoning behind this decision and what safety measures will be in place and to explore other alternatives to the current date.

 

The second agenda item requested by the Committee is a discussion of the 4th person recently added to the ferry crew for the purpose of selling tickets.  The cost of this position will be $100,000 per year.  The position is being added in order to pass the upcoming State audit of monetary practice at the ferry.  The Committee objects to the fact that we were not included in the discussion that led to the decision to add this position and to the cost of doing so.

 

In addition to these items the Committee will hold a discussion with the Public Works Department about ramifications of the Public Works Department’s practice of making unilateral decisions in the absence of collaboration with the Ferry Committee. The Committee will request that the PW Department use a problem solving methodology that includes a rigorous analysis of solution options and that Berk and Associate assist them in doing so. 

2.       The Committee will invite representatives of Linetime.org to come to the 3/16/03 Working Meeting to answer any questions that Linetime.org would like to ask.

3.       Glen will continue to attend the Community Council Meetings to give the Council a report from the Ferry Committee.  Marilee will be his back up.

4.       The Committee is deeply concerned that Ferry fares will be raised without the Public Works Department first ensuring that all available revenue is actually being collected.  The Committee will present a short-term plan to PW that we would like to see implemented by May 1, 2003 in order to capture all summer traffic revenue.  This plan will be presented as an interim measure to be enacted until the Ferry Task Force has the opportunity to propose a long-term solution.  The Committee will suggest that passes contain license plate numbers that correspond to car stickers in order to prevent passes from being transferred to another user.

5.       A  discussion of how best to publicize the 3/30/03 public meeting was held and the following tasks were assigned:

Dixon:         Arrange for a notice in the Evening Starr

Carl:           Inquire about a free notice in the Clam Digger

Marilee:       Design a flyer to be posted at the Terminals, the library and Anderson’s Store.

Glen:          Message on the Chalkboard at the landing

Meeting Adjourned:  10:00 PM