The $80-million, ice-breaking catamaran ferry, a U.S. Navy prototype that cost the feds a pretty penny and was envisioned as a speedy link across Kink Arm between Alaska's largest city and remote Port MacKenzie that has plagued Mat-Su Borough officials is now causing a stir in the Marianas Islands, an island nation west of the Philippines, the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reports.
The Borough hoping to unload the unused ferry, which is now only sucking up money, was considering sending it to to the tropical Pacific, maybe for free. But that deal is now reportedly standing on shaky ground.
Conflicting announcements over the Marinas Islands' intentions to purchase the ferry has confused officials of the island nation, who were miffed at hearing about the ferry talks from Alaska news reports instead of their own governor. Now some people are calling for the impeachment of the governor, Benigno Fital, over his economic development plans and lack of transparency.
"If it were not for media reports about the $80 million ferry, we might not even know there were communications about it. Who knows, it may still continue later on," Rep. Janet Maratita of Saipan told the Saipan Tribune.
A Dec. 3 report quoted Fitial that the Marinas Islands is not interested in purchasing the ferry at this time, but that he is hoping to carry out studies reviewing whether the M/V Susitna is a viable option.
Fitial's new reticence in purchasing the ferry is betrayed by news accounts that the governor made a $190 million agreement to buy electricity generated by diesel fuel.
"It's about time the (Fitial) administration does something right, by waiting for an economic analysis to be done before making any deal. Maybe they learned a lesson from the $190.8-million power purchase deal," said a representative from Saipan told the Saipan Tribune.
"He's received a lot of scrutiny for (the power deal)," Mat-Su spokesman Emerson Krueger told the Frontiersman. "And then there was an effort to impeach him that failed."
Now, there's another attempt to impeach Fitial by the super majority in the commonwealth's parliament, but "one of the leaders ... is also interested in the M/V Susitna," Kruger said.
Read more from the Frontiersman or the Saipan Tribune.