More Problems with the Barge and Personnel Cutbacks

The following is almost a million dollars for the tug services and repairs to the barge resulting from the tug services. Plus the newly proposed Mooring Modification to Pier 2C (and what might the cost of that be?) will put the additional costs of the barge well over a million dollars since it was delivered for operation.

The following is an excellent article today on the barge and a review of recent events:

Ferry fund is going dry with cost to repair docking barge The Maui News - By Edwin Tanji
Harbors official looks at options; some blame issue on lack of EIS
"A request for $414,284 in repairs to the docking barge for the Hawaii Superferry to land at Kahului Harbor will exhaust the state harbors appropriation for ferry-related improvements, Deputy Transportation Director Mike Formby said Friday. Funds for additional projects required to modify state harbors to accommodate the Superferry "will come from somebody other than the state," said Formby, who heads the Harbors Division...Information on the request for the procurement exemption on the barge repairs can be found online at www.hawaii.gov/spo2/exempt103d/ . Objections to the request must be filed by next Tuesday." ...

Further comments on how this could have been foreseen and planned for are added directly to the following article from yesterday:

Superferry barge repairs to cost state $414284 Honolulu Advertiser - By Christie Wilson
"The state Department of Transportation plans to spend $414284 for immediate repairs to the Hawaii Superferry barge at Kahului Harbor to...The damage occurred over the past nine months from rough contact between the barge and the end of Pier 2C at the Maui port and from the force of a tugboat pushing from the seaward side of the barge to keep it against the pier while the 350-foot, high-speed ferry is unloading and loading...Not included in the $40 million was $503,000 the state spent from December through September to hire a tugboat to keep the barge snug against the pier during ferry operations. Hawaii Superferry is responsible for tugboats costs effective Oct. 1, Formby said." ...

Also, it turns out what was heard on Maui last week was accurate:

Superferry ‘realignments’ cost two top executives their jobs Pacific Business News
"Hawaii Superferry has dismissed Terry O’Halloran, its director of business development, and Duane Kim, manager of Maui operations." ...

Business Briefs Honolulu Star-Bulletin
"Hawaii Superferry has laid off "less than 10 of about 200 people" it employs on Oahu and Maui, according to spokeswoman Lori Abe." ...

I might add that knowledgeable people outside of the company on Maui had good things to say about Duane Kim.

Aloha, Brad