2:28 In a House Finance Committee meeting at the state capitol in Juneau, a Department of Transportation official suggested some cost-saving measures, including ridding the fleet of one of its unused vessels, the MV Malaspina.
It’s one of the fleet’s oldest ships, built in the 1960s, and it has been moored at Ward Cove in Ketchikan since 2019. It costs about $450,000 annually just to store the ship.
The state is currently considering a variety of options to remove that red line from its budget. They’ve looked into selling the ferry, but there’s an overabundance of decommissioned cruise ships available, so there’s very little interest in the open market. That leaves selling the boat for scrap metal or just sinking it.
Ketchikan businesses reckon with another summer without cruise ships
Posted by Eric Stone | Feb 24, 2021
Lighthouse Excursions’ Endeavor sails on a tour. (Photo: Alabastro Photography courtesy of Jeff Karlson)
Ketchikan businesses are now reckoning with the prospect of another year without tourists. Some managed to limp through 2020, but there’s uncertainty how they’ll survive a second season without cruise visitors.
The pandemic and the ensuing shutdown of cruising in the U.S. has upended Southeast Alaska’s economy. And Lindsey Johnson, owner of Ketchikan Dry Goods, is trying to adapt.
“My store originally was more of a boutique and gift shop, and we’ve been shifting in the last six, seven months to being more of a specialty food store,” Johnson said in an interview.
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On the afternoon of Jan. 22, as part of its annual policy session, the Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly entered a work session to discuss affordable housing in the borough and