Cordova faces a thin ferry winter with four vessels in overhaul

Cordova is heading into winter with reduced ferry service, as four Alaska Marine Highway System vessels go into overhaul, one of them out for most of the season. For a community with no road link, the ferry is the connection to Whittier, Valdez, Tatitlek and Chenega, and the City Council takes up the winter schedule at a work session Monday, with state Rep. Louise Stutes joining members.

Winter reservations are open on a schedule thinned by the overhauls. The M/V Aurora is out from Oct. 1 through March 5 after crews found extensive wasted steel, the deepest cut to the season. The Kennicott is down through Dec. 1, the Columbia from late November through April, and the Tustumena from mid-January through April.

The winter schedule runs Oct. 1 through April 30, and public comment on the draft closed in July. Monday's session is a discussion, not a vote, but it gives Cordova residents a chance to raise concerns about the thinned schedule directly with Stutes, who represents Kodiak, Cordova, Seward and several smaller coastal communities, before the winter sailings begin.