Cordova mayor to raise ferry, road concerns with DOT chief Tuesday

The extra winter sailing Cordova wants would tie up at a Whittier cruise dock that may not be able to land vehicles, which the mayor says would do the community little good.

Mayor Kristin Smith told the Cordova City Council on Wednesday, Sept. 16, that Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities Commissioner Ryan Anderson will be in Cordova Tuesday, Sept. 22. His office called her Wednesday to set up an afternoon meeting.

"So I've got a meeting set up for Tuesday afternoon, and I was going to ask all of you what else we should put on the list to discuss," Smith said. "Are there other transportation issues that we want to bring to DOT's attention while we have them?"

Smith said she plans to raise ferry service at the meeting. She has heard nothing back from the Alaska Marine Highway System about adding an extra sailing to Cordova's winter schedule. She said she was told the Tustumena cannot tie up at the regular ferry dock and would have to use a cruise ship dock in Whittier instead. Whittier has two cruise docks, Smith said: the Princess dock at Cliffside Marina on the town side of Passage Canal, and a newer one at the head of the bay that was the site of a recent fire. She said the docks she looked at do not appear set up to unload vehicles.

The proposed winter deployment puts the Aurora, the Prince William Sound vessel, in overhaul from Oct. 1 until March 5 and ends the Tustumena's Southwest run Jan. 15. DOT&PF and AMHS released the proposed October 1 through April 30 plan for public review in July, framing reduced service as an operating plan weighed against statewide constraints.

Council member Debra Adams added road conditions, naming Whitshed Road past Three Mile. "I would say the, uh, Whiteshed Road, Three Mile, you know, basically just past where they're fixing it with our grant project," Adams said. "There's some areas out there that are pretty scary, and they're going to get scarier with snow and ice."

Smith asked council members to email her any additional ideas before Tuesday.