04/03/2008: "Ferry Lottery For Trucks Hauling Garbage"

Cimarron Enterprises failed to “win the Lottery” for some much needed spaces on the ferry, and will now have to wait in line for the first sailing from Anacortes on Tuesday and Thursday. Cimarron’s trucks haul solid waste for Public Works, and the lack of priority loading means trucks, and the garbage they haul may start to back up on Orcas.

Commercial haulers, including Cimarron, must compete for a limited number of reserved boarding slots by trying to get their application through to Washington State Ferries on a limited number of fax lines.

Department of Transportation Records show that Cimarron was one of the first to get through in 2006, finished comfortably in the middle in 2007, but on March 4 - though the company claims that it started trying to fax promptly at 9 a.m., its fax was among the last to get through; its requests being among the last 25 of 150 total requests for slots.

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“We have looked at a lot of alternatives,” said Public Works Director Jon Shannon. “Some of them we have looked at don’t work and some of them cost 300% more than our current cost.” Shannon told the Council that some of the load will need to be shifted Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the weekends when the hauler has boarding slots. That may necessitate shutting down the Orcas transfer station one or two days per week.

Currently the Washington Administrative Code (WAC) does provide for priority boarding for essential services, such as emergency vehicles and trucks transporting live animals. County government vehicles and County contractors are not given priority.

Administrator Rose told the council that the only long-term solution, while ferry space is limited, is to convince the State Transportation Commission to change the state’s administrative code to give boarding priority to a broader group of providers of essential services.

Jayne Davis, regional operations Manager for the State Ferries Division said that lacking a specific provision in state law, the Washington State Ferries must give all vendors an equal chance at the limited reserved boarding slots on state ferries. She added that the Ferry Division would be supportive of a proposal to broadening the definition of essential service vehicles.