Recently, numerous media outlets provided updates on a proposal for a new Chesapeake Bay ferry service. The proposal suggests a fleet of passenger only ferries connecting Annapolis, Baltimore, Kent Island, Easton, Cambridge, Rock Hall, St. Michaels, Oxford, Chestertown, Tilghman Island, Betterton, Havre de Grace, Solomons Island, Chesapeake Beach, North East, Leonardtown, Salisbury, Galesville, and Crisfield.
The proposal suggests this new ferry service would help boost tourism and economic development in the Chesapeake Bay region of Maryland.
Previous media updates reported consultants for five Maryland counties that comprise the Chesapeake Bay Passenger Ferry Consortium – Anne Arundel, Calvert, St. Mary’s, Somerset, and Queen Anne’s concluded a new passenger ferry system was feasible and cost effective.
The most recent media updates on this project report that Anne Arundel County alone has received a $3,895,000 federal grant, a grant amount far less than a requested $7,200,000.
According to their grant application, Anne Arundel County plans to use the available federal grant money for a new ferry service between Baltimore, Annapolis, and Kent Island.
Later this month, a seventeen-person delegation will be traveling to Sweden. Their itinerary includes a tour of an electric passenger ferry factory and learning more about ferry planning.
The delegation includes representatives from the Maryland Departments of Commerce and Natural Resources, the Anne Arundel County Executive, Anne Arundel County senior staff members, Anne Arundel County Council members, Annapolis Mayor, Annapolis City Council members, Annapolis City senior staff, executive director of Visit Annapolis and Anne Arundel County, ceo of the Anne Arundel County Economic Development Corporation and executive director of the Resilience Authority of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County.
Funding for attendee costs on this trip includes donations of $25,000 from the Denker Foundation and an unspecified donation from the MHE Foundation.
While this most recent update is somewhat informative, it does not provide answers to a wide range of critical questions about this project, some of which were included in my recent commentary on this proposal.
In this commentary there are new unanswered questions.
Why are all the individuals going to Sweden from state government or Anne Arundel County?
Why are there no attendees on the trip from Calvert, St Mary’s, Queen Annes’s, and Somerset counties, all of which are members of the Chesapeake Bay Passenger Ferry Consortium?
Do the donations from the two foundations cover all the attendee costs for the trip to Sweden?
If not, where will the balance of funding come from?
Why was one of their first priorities in the Anne Arundel County grant application ordering two electric ferry boats for service between Baltimore, Annapolis, and Kent Island?
Why is another first priority the placement of an order for boats before the end of 2024 when no ferry service is expected to start until 2027?
How do these priorities impact the feasibility of and timeline for previously announced consortium plans to launch new passenger-only ferries serving all the locations listed above in the Chesapeake Bay Passenger Ferry Consortium proposal?
What is the status on efforts securing a public/private partnership to operate the proposed new ferry system?
To date, money spent or approved on this new ferry proposal includes a $250,000 federal grant for a feasibility study, another federal grant commitment of $3,895,000, another possible federal grant commitment for the balance of the original $7,200,000 grant request that was recently denied.
Yet to be confirmed is if the full travel costs to Sweden will be covered by the grants from the two private foundations? If not, who will cover the remaining balance?
While all of the above questions merit answers, I suggest there are two questions that merit immediate answers before any more money is spent or requested for this new ferry proposal.
Have members of the Chesapeake Bay Passenger Ferry Consortium spoken to, or will they speak to owners and operators of Chesapeake Bay tour boats to discuss the impact on their business of a new ferry system operated by a public/private partnership? Several of these charter tour boat operators already offer regularly scheduled Bay tours. They regularly go to and from Baltimore, Annapolis, St Michael’s, Crisfield, and Cambridge, among other Bay locations. Some tour operators also offer customized tours to anywhere clients want to go on the Bay, whenever they want to go, and for as long a time or as short a time they want to go. Recently, a local small business in Easton recently chartered a tour boat for a customized roundtrip between Kent Island and Baltimore for an Orioles game. By all accounts, this trip was a great success.
Have members of the Chesapeake Bay Passenger Ferry Consortium spoken to, or will they speak to owners and operators of recreational fishing charter boats to discuss on if and how they can expand their services to meet the increased public demand for Bay tours as projected in the consortium’s feasibility study on a new ferry?
These charter fishing boat operators especially need help as their livelihood and way of life is currently seriously threatened by new state regulations on rockfish fish harvesting limits.
Answers to these questions could accomplish two things.
They can avoid reinventing the wheel. They could also allow for a more fully informed decision on whether this proposed new ferry system is the best and most cost-effective program to help increase tourism and economic development in Maryland.
David Reel is a public affairs and public relations consultant who lives in Easton.
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