Ferryman keeps trying

Published 1:00 pm Saturday, December 27, 2003

George Bacon has a dream, and he’s not giving it up just because he’s 92 years old.

For years, the wiry old ferryman has been an occasional visitor to the Island County Courthouse, where he promotes his dream of a ferry from Camano Island to Whidbey Island. It wouldn’t be a classic car ferry, but rather a barge pulled by a tug, with the barge carrying trucks and cars between the two islands.

Camano residents would disembark near the county seat in Coupeville, saving a round-trip drive of more than 100 miles. Whidbey residents could use the barge ferry as a shortcut to Interstate 5.

Bacon’s most recent visit to the courthouse occurred Tuesday, when he was armed with the latest results from a survey advertisement he had paid to have printed in newspapers serving Whidbey and Camano islands, including The Whidbey News-Times. He hoped to meet with Commissioner Mac McDowell, but all three commissioners were out of the office that day.

The advertisement from Island Ferry Co. asked people to check one of two boxes: “Yes Car Ferry,” or “Yes Passenger Ferry.” It stated the cost of crossing Saratoga Passage would be $4.50.

Bacon was delighted that 210 people cut out the ad, checked one of the boxes and returned it to his address in Lake Stevens. “There were 34 ‘no’ votes,” he said, point to a small stack of ads. “And 210 ‘yes’ votes,” pointing to a much larger stack. He didn’t mention that the ad didn’t give the option of voting no — that required a write-in vote.

Many of the yes voters included brief supportive comments, urging Bacon to keep trying or even expand the ferry proposal.

Bacon has been chasing his dream for at least 15 years. He has a background in the ferry business, having operated the Maryhill Ferry across the Columbia River near The Dalles, before a bridge was built; a ferry on Roosevelt Lake near Grand Coulee Dam; and the Everett to Hat Island ferry.

Bacon says he has ferry landing sites picked out on Camano at the High Road ending; and on Whidbey in Race Lagoon. But he needs Island County to “give me a franchise … it doesn’t cost the county anything but a franchise on the tideflats.”

Without use of the tideflats, his proposal is stuck.

Bacon was hoping that his latest survey results would convince the county commissioners that the people want his ferry and it’s time to act. But the commissioners weren’t home, so he settled on talking to Mike Morton, the county’s transportation planner.

“We’ve met every other month for the last 15 years,” chuckled Morton after Bacon departed. “He’s got this vision and he just keeps pursuing it; you’ve got to admire him.”

Bacon’s survey results failed to impress the transportation planner. “He didn’t give people very good choices,” Morton said. And he feels certain that if the county tried to proceed with the ferry plan, opposition would quickly form as most islanders don’t want cars and trucks disembarking across their beaches. “You’d have shoreline communities getting organized and marching down to the courthouse,” he predicted.

County leaders aren’t seriously considering Bacon’s barge ferry. But they do look favorably on passenger-only ferries. “We’re steering him toward a passenger ferry,” Morton said.

But a passenger ferry has never been part of Bacon’s dream, and he’s unlikely to amend it after all these years of trying.

Bacon says he’s just going to keep pursuing his auto barge proposal until somebody listens, maybe until he turns 100.

“I’ve got a perfect heartbeat and perfect blood pressure,” he said. “And I know the business — what more could you ask?”