The Ferry is (still) dead

from this week’s North Coast News

Part I of a Marina series: Unless there’s a miracle, the Ocean Shores-Westport Ferry won’t run again, this summer.

Locals will tell you the Ocean Shores Marina was really something, back in the 80s. Fishing boats, charters . . .  Well, things slowly went downhill, and for the last decade, the Marina, owned by the Quinault Indian Nation since 1996, has been treading water. 

There wasn’t much going on, commercially, just Larry Thevik’s lone-wolf crabbing boat. But at least there was the ferry, a summer Ocean Shores-Westport run that was a delight for locals and tourists, and a watery bridge between the two cities.

Last summer, for the first time in more than 20 years, the ferry stopped running. Bill Walsh, the owner of El Matador, said the water in the Marina was just too shallow.

And it wasn’t just a one-year hiatus. Save an almost miraculous set of circumstances, the ferry is dead this year, too.

Until the Marina is dredged (a process where the silt from the bottom is lifted out, thereby deepening the water), El Matador will stay on the Westport side.

“It looks to me like it’s a very pessimistic view for 2009,” Walsh said, last week. “The possibility is to be open for 2010.”

Dredging would have to start in the next few weeks, for any hope that it would be completed for a summer ferry run. And it’s not just a matter of figuring out who is going to pay the Corps (or a private contractor) to do the work. Permits have to be granted, studies have to be done . . . 

“The government moves slow, with permitting,” Walsh noted.

Having dredging done by this summer is “extremely unlikely,” said Vicki Cummings, executive director of the Grays Harbor Council of Governments and unofficial middle-person between the various Marina players.

“Funding is hard to find,” she elaborated. “Once that happens, you have to go through all the environmental studies, permitting . . . There’s federal strings, state strings, it adds more time to the project.

“Even if the legislature said ‘Here’s a million bucks, go do it,’ it’s probably realistically going to take at least a year.”

Dick Skewis, an Ocean Shores councilman, is all for the dredging. Yet he takes an even more grim view:

“It’s five years out. At least,” he said.

It comes down to this: No dredge, no ferry.

“Trouble is, it’s just too shallow,” Walsh said of the Ocean Shores Marina. “We were losing too many trips.”

At low tide, it is almost impossible, and quite dangerous, to try to get in or out of the Marina. Thevik says his Midnight Star boat, which is about the size of El Matador, “sits in the mud” on some days.

The ferry made money for years, but, after a build up of silt in the Marina made low tides too risky, Walsh said he lost money on the business in 2006 and 2007. So, last April, he said “no go” for the summer of 2008.

It was a huge disappointment, in Westport, which for years benefitted from Ocean Shores tourists discovering their smaller town.

“It’s a tremendous benefit,” Walsh said. “All the people that have businesses on the main street were complaining like crazy,” after he shut down the season.

Worst-case scenario: No dredging is done in the near future, and the Ocean Shores-Wesport ferry takes its place with the telegraph, horse-drawn carriages, silent movies and other cultural extinctions.

Best-case scenario: The Quinaults, the City of Ocean Shores, the Port of Grays Harbor, the Corps of Engineers and anyone else willing to partner up finance and execute dredging of the Marina, to deepen the water and make it viable for Walsh’s ferry.

Was the Ferry just a tourist kick, or a real boost to economies?

“The ferry was both,” says Nicky Anderson, a former manager of the Marina (pre-Quinault ownership). “It was a fun trip. They kept old bread to feed the gulls for those that got a kick out of it especially kids. I have been on board when a mama grey whale and her calf followed the Matador. Very often in the summer it was filled to capacity . . .

“It was a huge tourist attraction and fun for locals as well. The crew wore many hats. Once two idiots were out stealing crabs from crab pots and their somewhat unstable craft tipped over. The Matador crew rescued them, supplied them with blankets since they were really in danger of hypothermia . . .

“I personally loved the trip. Lots of local folks loaded their bikes on board and spent a couple of hours exploring Westport. Yes the ferry was a huge asset to Ocean Shores.”

The other side also sees a boost from the ferry.

“It would help the economy of both Ocean Shores and Westport,” said Michael Bruce, mayor of Westport.

“We met last year this time when we found out it was too silty to get the ferry out. (Walsh) said he just wasn’t going to risk his props unless dredging was done.”

Bruce said representatives from Westport, Ocean Shores, the Quinaults, the County and the Port met and talked about solutions.

“It was decided the Quinaults would take it back to their tribal council. I don’t know if it’s fallen through the cracks.”

Connie Wilson, of the Quinault Planning Commission, did not return a call in time for this story.

While there has been movement recently, at least to set up a meeting regarding the Marina, it’s almost surely too late, for the summer of 2009 ferry. Walsh hasn’t quite put the nails in the coffin on this year, but realistically he is hoping to reopen the run next summer.

“I’ve been getting a few calls, saying, ‘Hey we want to get the ball rolling,’” Cummings said.

But she also said that her agency has been sorting through requests from various communities hoping to tap into Federal stimulus money. They listed “shovel ready” projects requesting assistance.

Ocean Shores, Westport and the Quinault Nation all put in lists of projects they identified as ready to go, and in need of financial assistance.

None of them listed the Marina.

Next week: Does the Port of Grays Harbor  support the Marina?