The wonderful Meegan Reid found this negative in a sleeve that only
said,
“High Tide
December 20 1972”
If you’re a ferry nut, that should narrow it down considerably.
Name that ferry.
Monthly Archives: June 2014
Ferry names cut down to three
Illahee.
Suquamish.
Radulescu.
Those are the names you chose for a new Bremerton ferry. Now you
need to pick one to submit to the state Transportation
Commission.
The vessel will be the third in the 144-car Olympic class. The
first two are Tokitae, which is supposed to begin service Tuesday
on the Mukilteo-Clinton run, and Samish, which will serve the San
Juan Islands early next year.
Two weeks ago, Washington State Ferries signed a $112.6 million
change order authorizing construction of the third boat. It’s not
expected to be finished until early 2017.
The ferries system will soon tell the Transportation Commission by
when it needs a name, and the commission will solicit them. There
will be several proposals. Seven were considered for the last two
boats. Those not selected were Ivar Haglund, Cowlitz, Hoquiam,
Muckleshoot and Sammamish. I wouldn’t be surprised if they try
again.
I know the Manette community is campaigning for Enetai. I like it,
and we got several votes for it, but not enough to break into the
top three. Others finishing just out of the running were Angeline
and Kalaloch.
There are lots of good names, but we want to propose one based on
your votes because the ferry will be serving the Kitsap area.
A couple names I really like that came in late are Kloomachin,
which means killer whale in the Sklallam language, and Sholeetsa,
who was Chief Seattle’s mother. Maybe next time.
Let’s look at the finalists:
Illahee means “land,” “country” or “place where one lives.” in the
Chinook language. A community three miles north of Bremerton, which
was a Mosquito Fleet stop, took the name, as well as a state park
in the same vicinity. A state ferry was also named Illahee from
1940 until 2009. It was removed from service in 2007 because of
hull corrosion, sold in 2009 and scrapped in Mexico.
Suquamish translates to “people of the clear salt water.” It’s the
name of a tribe that lives on the Port Madison Reservation and a
town within the reservation, another former Mosquito Fleet stop.
There has never been a ferry called Suquamish. Two are named for
Suquamish chiefs, Kitsap and Sealth.
Washington State Trooper Tony Radulescu, of Port Orchard, was shot
to death on a traffic stop by a felon in February 2012. There’s a
memorial for him at the District 8 headquarters in Bremerton.
Choosing Radulescu would be bucking the trend. The Transportation
Commission likes consistency, and all but one of the ferries have
Native American names. Its policy says it’ll consider people’s
names, but only if they’ve been dead 20 years, possess enduring
fame, and played a significant historical role in the region.
Illahee, Suquamish or Radulescu. Vote for your favorite and we’ll
tally them up in a week or so, announce the winner and start
vetting it with local groups and officials.
Logjam leaving Colman Dock being broken
Bremerton drivers will get the green light this week after being
stuck at Colman Dock by construction.
When Bremerton and Bainbridge ferries unload in Seattle at the same
time, at least four times a day, Bremerton vehicles aren’t allowed
north out of the terminal to Marion Street because of seawall
replacement project. They’re all forced right, to Yesler Way, where
there’s no traffic sensor, so the light stays green for just a
short time. It can take more than half an hour to clear the
dock.
When Bremerton drivers can use both Marion and Yesler, the light
stays green longer because the sensor is on Marion.
The Seattle Department of Transportation will be installing a new
override system this week to let ferry workers manually trigger a
longer green cycle at Yesler.
I don’t know exactly how if works, whether there’s a sensor in the
traffic signals or in the pavement or somewhere else that can tell
how many cars are backed up and is smart enough to keep the light
green. I just know when the cars are lined up turn toward Marion,
the light stays green longer. The manual system should take a bite
out of the Yesler wait.
Washington ranks ninth in gas tax
Washington collects the ninth-highest gas taxes in the country,
at 37.5 cents per gallon, the Tax Foundation showed on a cool
map
last week. It used new data from the American Petroleum
Institute.
At the extremes were California No. 1 at 53.2 cents and Alaska 50th
at 12.4 cents.
If you’re driving into Washington from neighboring states, you
might want to stop in Idaho (25.0 cents) or Oregon (31.1 cents) and
get gas before crossing the border.
Rounding out the top five are Hawaii (50.3 cents), New York (49.9),
Connecticut (49.3) and Michigan (39.3). Bringing up the rear are
New Jersey (14.5), South Carolina (16.8), Oklahoma (17.0) and
Missouri (17.3).
These numbers don’t include the 18.4 cent federal excise that goes
on top.
Gas taxes generally go toward funding transportation infrastructure
maintenance and new projects. It’s a user fee in that it loosely
connects users of roads with the costs of enjoying them, but not as
perfectly as tolls.
71 cents of every Narrows toll dollar goes toward debt
WSDOT put a graphic on its blog showing how tolls for the Tacoma
Narrows Bridge are sliced up according to costs. In the state’s
last fiscal year that ended June 30, 2013, 71 cents of every dollar
went to pay for debt service. Another 12 percent was stashed in a
reserve fund. Then there’s 5.3 percent to pay Transcore, the
toll-collection vendor, 3.2 percent for ETCC, the customer service
center vendor, and 2.4 percent for insurance. After that it gets
pretty piddly for things like credit card fees, consultants and
maintenance.
Dollarswise, $63.6 million in tolls was collected.
Tolls will be rising by 25 cents on July 1. They’ll be $4.50 for
Good To Go! transponders, $5.50 for drivers paying at toll booths
and $6.50 for Pay By Mail. It’ll cost the average weekday commuter
about $65 more a year. The tolls keep going up because of
escalating debt payments.
Visit
http://wsdotblog.blogspot.com/2014/06/where-do-my-toll-dollars-go.html