Committee:

Carl Cady

Glen Veal

Marilee Fosbre

Dyvon Havens

Staff:

Jim Voetberg

Ron Panzero

Samantha Clark

Other Attendees:

Steve Schmokel

A suggestion was made that the meeting notes have more detail than in previous meetings. A suggestion was tabled that the Ferry Committee take the meeting notes. The members present do not wish to take the notes as they feel this will impede their participation in the meeting. It was agreed that meeting notes will continue to be done by Public Works, who will transmit them to the Ferry Committee in a word document for review and suggested corrections. The Committee will review, comment and forward any changes back to Public Works. Final meeting notes will be forwarded to the Ferry Committee who will post them on their linetime.org website to Guemes Island residents.

Ridership Information and Financial Information:

Ridership and financial information will be published in the Annual Report. The Ferry Committee will be provided a copy upon completion. This will include the Ferry Deficit Reimbursement information. The report will be published in the month of November. The format is similar to the report in July 2007 and October 2007.

The Committee mentioned that this is supposed to be a joint presentation given to the County Commissioners as a product of the Roundtable Meetings per Resolution R20040393.

System Operations (issues, concerns, maintenance):

The Ferry is scheduled to come out of service November 15 – 16, 2007. The Ferry will make the 6:30, 7:00, and 7:30 morning runs on November 15. Starting at 8:00, the Aero Launch service will begin. This has been published on the Skagit County website and at the Ferry terminals. Email notification is being kicked back due to network servers recognizing the notification as spam email. The Committee has had the same issue with the Guemes Island email list. Dividing the list into two sections has corrected the problem for the Committee.

The Ferry repair work being conducted is warrantee work. A preliminary check has been made with a diver, and there are no issues with the propeller. A quick maintenance turn around is expected.

Mr. Panzero suggested a meeting with the Ferry Crew and the Guemes Island Ferry Committee. Ferry Crew meetings are conducted on the first Thursday of every month.

System Management Update: Jim Voetberg

A copy of the resolution draft was given to the Ferry Committee. The resolution intent is not to change the Ferry schedule on a permanent basis. The Resolution amends Attachment A (Ferry Schedule) of the current resolution to allow Public Works more flexibility to adjust schedules to match ridership needs.

Several comments were voiced by the Ferry Committee and Public Works staff regarding semantics of the “Where-As” section, relationship to the existing schedule resolution as it relates phase I and phase II, crew breaks, and a request to have the Ferry Committee involved with establishing actual departure times. Mr. Voetberg will confer with the County attorney for legality and liability of suggestions made and prepare a revised resolution for the Ferry Committee to review by November 8, 2007. Mr. Voetberg said it was his intent to include the Ferry Committee in determining the actual Ferry schedule. He said that he will make changes to the resolution to reflect this intent (a suggested wording change was presented by the Ferry Committee).

With grammatical changes in the “Where-As” section, the addition of language in the “Now Therefore” section to include Ferry Committee review in setting actual departure times, and the deletion of reference to “generally 30-minute runs” in the “Now Therefore” section, the Ferry Committee agreed with the resolution.Fare Rate Methodology

A copy of the resolution draft to more clearly define the methodology which sets Ferry fares was given to the Ferry Committee, along with the 2008 budget. A discussion pursued on a variety of related topics including, but not limited to the existing rate methodology resolution, Public Works management of the system, funding support by the County, incentives to control costs, ridership growth, the 4th Crew member, and other costs to be included in the proposed cost recovery model.

Mr. Voetberg explained how the proposed resolution tied to the Public Works’ Ferry budget. A general discussion of the various line items occurred. After much discussion, the Ferry Committee agreed with the methodology except for the inclusion of “rentals” which they believe is a maintenance related cost, not an operational related cost. Mr. Voetberg agreed to consider their request to remove this from the cost recovery methodology and will provide a revised resolution to the Ferry Committee prior to the meeting of November 8, 2007.

A copy of the resolution draft was given to the Ferry Committee. Mr. Voetberg discussed the resolution and the proposed rates. It was pointed out that the rates remained the same except for a summer surcharge.

The Ferry Committee commented on the various rates and suggested changes including lowering the senior citizen walk-on rate, eliminating the senior discount for vehicles, changes to the oversized vehicle rates, and that the rates reflect a study conducted in 2004. Mr. Voetberg said that he was not opposed to considering changes, but that the changes needed to be reasonable, not overly favor one and that overall projected revenues needed to remain the same. The Ferry Committee said that they would like to have time to review the rate structure and make recommendations to Public Works. The Ferry Committee will meet early next week and provide their recommendations to Public Works on November 8, 2007.

The Committee would like to see the meeting notes before the next meeting.

The next meeting will be conducted on November 8, 2007 at 10:00 AM in the Sauk Conference Room of the Public Works Department (NOTE: The Skagit Conference Room is not available for the next meeting).