| Guemes Island Ferry Committee / Skagit County Public Works Operations
and Performance Roundtable Staff: Steve Flude, Steve Cox, Ron Panzero, Karen Cade Committee:
Glen
Veal, Chairman, Carl Cady, Dixon
Elder Commenced:
2:07 pm Public Comment Period David Wehrly stated after reviewing the agenda for today’s meeting questioned why the Proposal for modifications of the structure of schedules of the ferry that he submitted at the last meeting April 23rd was not on the agenda per his request? Steve F. stated that the agenda is prepared with the information he receives from Glen Veal and the Ferry Committee and other items that Public Works would like to discuss. Furthermore neither Mr. Cox nor Mr. Flude are prepared to discuss the finer points of the proposal since we have not had time to read the proposal. Also from our perspective with respect to the extended service proposal the new schedule is not going to go into effect until October. It seems appropriate to put this item on the next Roundtable’s meeting in July. Steve stated that he would get a copy of this proposal to the Ferry Committee to review prior to the next meeting so they can make any comments. Roundtable protocols & procedures Meeting minutes, review and acceptance Action items, wrap and assignments Set agenda item time of discussion The above items were discussed with the agreement being the meeting summary shall be produced to the Ferry Committee within a 3-week period to review and make any comments/changes before being presented to the public. Also set an estimated time on each agenda item and try to stay within that time frame. Update on the parking lot construction Status of 6th Street Parking Lot Status of Guemes side parking Report on meeting with the Anacortes City Council Status of the 6th Street parking lot it opened last Friday, June 4 and will remain open until the time of construction being approximately July 1st and construction will take approximately 2-months. Status for the Guemes Side Parking is at this time our road crew is extremely busy and they work 4 10-hour days but via Steve C. they are aware of what maintenance work needs to be done and will get to it when they can. Meeting with Anacortes City Council was cancelled and has been rescheduled for later this month and early next month, one is the Board of Adjustments and the other is the Planning Commission. This meeting will be to present our proposals and answer any questions there maybe. Steve F. stated that signs will put up similar to last time we had folks parking on the APEX fish warehouse site to let folks know that they need to move their cars by July 1st or whatever the final date maybe. During the discussion about Anacortes parking, it was determined that a sign (or signs) that said "FOR GUEMES FERRY USERS ONLY" should be posted. In a discussion about the City of Anacortes parking ordinance around the ferry terminal, it was agreed that a courtesy sign should be posted displaying the parking rules and penalties, including possible towing. GIFC & Roundtable Recognition Resolutions Steve explained to the group the process of presenting Resolutions to the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) per the Agenda. The BCC received the cover sheet for these Resolutions but did not receive the Resolutions so there was nothing for the Board to read and sign. Steve F. showed Commissioner Munks the copy of the documents he had and Commissioner Munks was going to present this to the other Commissioners. Steve has not heard back from Commissioner Munks and will inquire about the status of the Resolutions and possibly present this information at the next Roundtable meeting. Property Purchase Update Steve F. stated that the County has in their possession a deed for the property just north of parking lot on Guemes side. County is in the process of getting building down and will possibly explore the idea of having the fire district use the house as a practice burn to remove the building. The County is going to try and get the building removed in the next 4 weeks due to the liability issue. Once the house is removed then the area would be made into a parking lot. The other piece of property is about 80% sure the owners will sell, then it goes back to 90%, this has been an up and down process so this is still being negotiated. New ticket media implementation Customer complaints / (critique process w/crew?) Status of written procedures Acceptance of checks – when and how Three person crew implementation Testing of the 20-minute schedule Ferry Committee informed the group of an incident when a passenger presented a check to purchase a ticket and was instructed by the Purser that there wasn’t time to help the passenger and caused the passenger to miss the ferry. Steve F. stated that the crew has been instructed to accept checks, cancel them immediately and give the passenger something back in return. Steve C. asked the Ferry Committee to inform him of complaints so he can present them to the staff at their meetings. Discussion continued with the possibility of ticket media being sold off-site to help eliminate these issues. Steve C. talked to two different locations that they have no problem with selling ferry ticket booklets with $1.00 fee. Steve C. will check into getting receipt booklets for the crew to use when receiving checks from passengers and also explore secondary sell places of ticket booklets. Steve C. stated that the written procedures were handed out to the crew members for them to review with possible testing of 20-minute schedule to be in August with estimate starting at 11:00 a.m. run and will notify the public of this testing. The three crew implementation possible to begin October 1st. When reviewing the current ticketing procedures, it was requested that a summary of the special Roundtable meeting (attended by Glen Veal, Dixon Elder, Holly Bowman, Steve Flude, Steve Cox, and PW Accounting Tech Jim Martin) prior to implementation and review of new ticketing be included as part of the total RT meeting summaries. Temporary Bearing Pad Fix Steve F. informed the Ferry Committee that about 2-weeks ago Steve C. did a spot inspection of the facilities due to the tide was low and we have been battling one of the bearing pads on the Anacortes side for the last couple of years and our temporary fix came loose so we hired a contractor to come and fix it. The repair is adequate and the duration of how long this fix will last we don’t know. Standard operating procedures Glen commented wants to make sure everyone is on the same page working with continuity and consistency and he sees that is being done so there was no more discussion on this matter. Talk-back Radio Demo Debrief Steve C. installed a sign on the talk-back speaker “this is used for emergency purposes only”. One of the issues he is still looking into is when that system is on whether or not there can be a little red light when the speaker is in use to make the passengers more comfortable that their conversation can’t be heard. Ticketing media sold off dock This item was already discussed. Action item would be to look into what the requirement would be to be able to sell ticket media at other locations. Steve C. to check into and give feedback hopefully at the next meeting. New Crew Additions Steve
C. stated that he has four new crewmembers; two crewmembers have been
recently trained and a third crewmember decided not to stay with the ferry
and Steve has hired two additional part-time on-call individuals who will
start training next week early. Reason for doing this is we have lost
three individuals that we need to replace. Customer Service Glen commented on the concerns with customer service and stated we need to have continuity and consistency and remember that the customer comes first and we need to accommodate their needs. Ron stated that he can stress to the crew we need to make that effort to get the passengers their ticket and make sure they get on the ferry and not be left behind like some instances that have happened. Ferry Taskers List Steve C. discussed what permits were applied for and the status. Applications that have been applied for are: SEPA JARPA Building Permit - pending Electrical Permit – pending Pending indicates we are waiting for the decisions from the SEPA and JARPA applications. There will not be a portable building on the Anacortes side for Bob’s workshop; instead we will install a permanent structure in that spot. On the Guemes side we are ordering a bus shelter and will be stored in the Burlington Shop until ready to install and will be ADA accessible. Clarification on the $100.00 extra last run fee Steve F. clarified that the crew has been instructed to operate the ferry after 6:00 p.m. is if they leave to go to Guemes and there is still people on the dock, they are to go to Guemes comeback and off-load then you take everyone that is on dock, if you head back to Guemes and there is still people on the dock, you are instructed to go to Guemes comeback and off-load and pick-up everyone that is on the dock and if you leave again and there is no one on the dock then you close the gate, if you then comeback and there is someone left on the dock and they want to go then they are charged the $100.00 because no new crew is to be called out. Extended Service Proposal Glen
stated that this has already been covered under the previous topics. Training of new crew Role of the Captain What are the OSHA, WISHA, and/or Coast Guard Regulations regarding passengers on the bridge span during its operation? Discussion began on where the passengers are supposed to wait. We need to have clarification by installing signs with where the passengers are supposed to wait to load/unload the ferry. For passenger’s safety we do not want them to wait on the bridge span, this is a safety/risk management issue. Steve C. stated that he is looking into 2-way radios for the crew to use for communication purposes. Also looking into installing light for passenger traffic. Status of reduced facility changes and schedule for their implementation The waiting room on the Guemes side is postponed until parking lot is constructed. Steve C. there is no access to water to wash the current building off unless he has the road crew come over which they are currently swamped. Glen suggested why not check with the local service clubs for adopt a waiting room program to have volunteers clean up building. Steve C. stated he would check into this. Most improvements will be done in the fall. Review of April 23 list of questions and answers Motorcycle policy Bicycle policy It was discussed to have same policy and procedures for both Anacortes and Guemes side in dealing with motorcycles. Steve C. will look into what options are available on how to handle the loading of motorcycles. Possibly install a sign about holding two motorcycles in the loading area then under that sign indicate the rules for loading motorcycles. It was decided to put the group tours bicycle policy on the back burner at this time. Dolphin Repair Update Steve F. stated that the consultant that was hired designed us a dolphin repair project and we also have it permitted, two dolphin replacements on both sides for a total of four (4) with the engineer’s estimate $700,000 - $750,000 for the total package. This information currently sits with Chal and trying to decide if we want to replace all 4 dolphins or just 2 this year. Chal has requested more information from Steve F. and Steve C. The permits are good for 2-years. Meeting adjourned at 5:30 p.m. |
