Sailing not smooth for ferry

The Maui News
Thursday, April 13, 2006

By VALERIE MONSON, Staff Writer

WAILUKU – A Hawaii Superferry official faced a joint committee of the state Legislature for two hours Wednesday with most of the tough questions generated by Neighbor Island lawmakers, especially those from Maui.

Although John Garibaldi, chief executive officer for Superferry, assured members that the company is dealing with community concerns, it was clear from the stern faces of legislators that not everyone was happy.

"Unfortunately, it's taken Hawaii Superferry so long to come to the table and finally get some community input," said Maui Sen. Shan Tsutsui, who represents the Wailuku-Kahului district.

Tsutsui supports the idea of an interisland ferry system, but has evolved into one of the project's harshest critics because there are so many unanswered questions.

"There has been very little opportunity to address these concerns," he said.

The informational briefing already was scheduled when the Senate's Ways and Means Committee recommended cutting $10 million for needed ferry improvements at the state's harbors because of frustration with Superferry planning. The funding cut will be discussed further during deliberations with the Finance Committee of the House of Representatives.

The briefing was broadcast by Capitol TV and shown live on Akaku: Maui Community Television. It will be rebroadcast on Channel 53 at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 9 p.m. Saturday.

Garibaldi opened with a lengthy PowerPoint update, in which it was obvious that Kahului Harbor will be, by far, the most challenging of the state's four ports planned for ferry services. As earlier reported in The Maui News, officials plan to create a "split operation" involving Pier 2, used by Young Brothers, and a parking lot now occupied by Valley Isle Motors on Kaahumanu Avenue.

A planned "terminal" probably will be a tent, and portable restrooms will be set up in the parking lot where passengers assemble. In the same area, outbound vehicles will line up to undergo security and agricultural inspections, then drive along the edge of the container yard parallel to Puunene Avenue, cross a newly constructed bridge and continue down a roadway on existing pavement to the end of Pier 2 where another "waiting area" will be created, according to Garibaldi. Vehicles will be loaded and unloaded on a floating barge that the state will build at the end of the pier.

Tsutsui questioned the types of facilities planned. Garibaldi said it hadn't been determined what type of "tent structure" would be used, but that portable restrooms "like the ones used for cruise ship passengers" will be put in place.

"Not single portapotties, but much nicer," he said.

Garibaldi said it's difficult to get federal moneys for facilities at this point, even though money is out there, because it's like "the chicken and the egg."

"Let's get something into service that makes sense," he said, before investing a lot into permanent infrastructure.

Sen. J. Kalani English wondered how the increasing business of Young Brothers would not suffer from the added impacts of the daily arrivals of the Superferries, which will carry up to 866 passengers and 282 cars. English recalled a site visit at the harbor last fall when a car that was parked slightly out of place caused gridlock because there was no room for Young Brothers trucks and forklifts to move.

Garibaldi said his company has met with the state Department of Transportation and Young Brothers "over a number of months" to come up with the schematic of "how best we can operate."

Superferry expects to begin travel with one ferry linking Oahu, Maui and Kauai in July 2007. A second ferry will be operating by 2009 with service to the Big Island included. Exact plans still are being developed.

Garibaldi said that "35 percent of the plan has been delivered to DOT."

Seventy percent of the plan will be ready by June and the entire document will be completed by the "fourth quarter" of this year so comments can be received by the end of 2006 "so they can be well in place" by July of 2007," he said.

That didn't sit well with Rep. Joe Souki, who represents Wailuku, who couldn't understand what was taking so long for a traffic impact study to be prepared. Most concerns on Maui have been raised over the added congestion at the already crowded intersection of Puunene and Kaahumanu avenues. When Garibaldi said the numbers had been gathered only last month and would be part of the June report, Souki wasn't satisfied and said he wanted to see the survey "in a week or two."

"It's important that we get that data before the end of the session," said Souki. "I want to see you succeed. If you don't, you're going to leave the state with a big problem."

West Maui Rep. Kam Tanaka worried about that, too.

"Suppose you went bankrupt," he speculated.

Garibaldi said the first mortgage (and claim to the ferries that will cost $190 million to build) is owned by the federal Maritime Administration, which provided a Title XI federal loan guarantee of $139.7 million. The second lien belongs to the shipbuilder based in Mobile, Ala., and the third is with the state.

Expecting a more profitable scenario, Garibaldi said the company projects it will pay the state more than $16 million in fees over the first four years of operation.

There were also questions about Superferry's single largest private investor, J.H. Lehman Co., headed by former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman, which has sunk $71 million into the project. Lehman's involvement has prompted rumors that Superferry's main client will be the U.S. military and be used to transport the equally controversial Stryker Brigade from Oahu to the Big Island.

But Garibaldi said no such arrangement exists. He said the military can book passage on the ferry, just as it does on commercial airlines. However, no contracts have been signed.

Kauai Sen. Gary Hooser was upset with Superferry's proposed schedule, which will have Kauai residents arriving in Honolulu around 10 p.m. – and that's if the trips earlier in the day all go like clockwork with quick one-hour turnaround times at each port.

Hooser also wanted to know if Superferry would be paying for off-site improvements needed to mitigate traffic impacts. Garibaldi didn't have an answer.

"We're allowing more development to move forward without infrastructure in place or even knowing what it's going to cost or who is going to pay for it," said Hooser.

Garibaldi spent a good deal of time telling legislators about Superferry's community outreach effort that includes advisory boards recently established on the Neighbor Islands and meetings held with a "significant number" of community groups ranging from "Lions clubs to kupuna meetings to school groups to Coast Guard alumni and the like."

A follow-up meeting with the Kahului-based canoe clubs is being coordinated for the near future.

The reason that community gatherings got a slow start was because there wasn't "funding or staff," said Garibaldi, but that has changed.

"Community outreach is a voluntary item on our part," he said.

Tsutsui didn't care for that response.

"I disagree on it being voluntary," he replied sharply.

Tsutsui added that he hoped that Superferry would address many of the concerns before the end of the legislative session scheduled for May 5.

Garibaldi suggested to the lawmakers that the Maui community not only favors Superferry, but remains its staunchest supporter, according to a poll taken by Market Trends Pacific a year ago. That survey found that 90 percent of all Hawaii residents would use Superferry at one time or another.

Maui, said Garibaldi, had the highest number: 94 percent.

Valerie Monson can be reached at vmonson@mauinews.com.

Copyright © 2005 The Maui News.

Original article URL: http://www.mauinews.com/story.aspx?id=18666

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