Sunday, March 31, 2013

Waste, What Waste?

From the Fairbanks AK. Daily Miner: An unwanted, $80 million ice-breaking ferry owned by an Alaska borough has only one bid to buy it, and it's for $751,000.
The bid was the only entered by Friday's deadline set up by the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, which has been trying to get rid of the 200-foot ferry. The borough doesn't have to accept the offer, The Anchorage Daily News reported (http://bit.ly/Zuh2SN).
The vessel was completed in 2011 and born out of a partnership between the borough, which wanted a ferry, and the Navy, which wanted a fast military landing craft.
Named the Susitna, the ferry was built as a Navy prototype that would be owned and operated by the borough. The project was funded mainly with Department of Defense earmarks wedged into the federal budget by then-U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens.
The borough has no suitable docks or a workable business plan to operate the vessel as a ferry between Anchorage and Port MacKenzie in the Mat-Su.
With monthly costs to the borough averaging $75,000 for insurance, maintenance, fuel, docking fees and other expenses, the Borough Assembly has directed employees to find the most economical way to shed it.  http://www.newsminer.com/news/alaska_news/one-k-bid-for-unwanted-alaska-ferry-worth-million/article_1b431eb0-999b-11e2-9827-0019bb30f31a.html
Hey, it's only $80,000,000 of wasted money or a couple of Obama vacations.

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