After watching his controversial Plan B become a whipping post at public hearings around Puget Sound, Washington State Ferries chief David Moseley was quick to frame WSF’s draft long-range plan as a guiding document during a stop on Bainbridge Tuesday.

“There is not a preferred plan here,” Moseley told about 100 people who crowded into the Bainbridge Commons. “What we have tried to do is provide goal posts for the Legislature to talk about.”

But many islanders told Moseley they were looking for a bigger target.

“We get two options, one of which needs to be immediately dismissed,” bicycle commuter Gordon Black said, “and I think you know which one it needs to be.”

Bainbridge was the sixth stop on a public comment-gathering campaign for the draft plan, which is due before the Legislature by the end of January.

The 22-year plan contains two options for the ferry system’s future. Plan A would maintain all regular routes, while building 10 ferries during that time. Plan B is being presented as a worst-case-scenario, in the event that new funding is not found for the system. Plan B would gradually decrease service on many routes, including Bremerton and Kingston, while building only five new boats.

WSF staff had already seen record-breaking crowds at hearings around Puget Sound as it presented the plans this month. More than 500 attended a Jan. 7 hearing on Vashon Island.

Many on Bainbridge were eager to take their turn berating Plan B. But the majority also came armed with their own ideas for reshaping the system and freeing up funds.

Bainbridge is one of the few routes that would not lose service if Plan B were implemented. But as many at the hearing pointed out, the island and State Route 305 would see an influx of traffic as service was cut back in Kingston and Bremerton.

“Our problem is different,” islander Dave Roe said. “If you cut everyone else, they are going to come here.”

Local elected officials objected to Plan B’s call to cut service and rely on a county-funded foot ferry fleets.

Bainbridge City Council member Barry Peters wondered if WSF had studied the impact the loss of service would have on business.

“What’s missing in the report is how important the ferry system is economically in this region,” Peters said.

Steve Bauer said Plan B seemed to fly in the face of state policies, including the Growth Management Act, which promotes mass transit over driving. The proposed service cuts would force more people to drive around south Puget Sound or to Bainbridge, he said.

Bauer said he was also surprised to see a plan that suggested the creation of a foot-ferry system in a county where sales tax levies to pay for such ferries already had been refuted twice by voters.

“On closer inspection it doesn’t even look like a plan,” Bauer said. “What it really looks like is the state shuffling its problems onto local governments.”

While Plan B elicited the strongest emotion, the stay-the-course method of Plan A drew its share of criticism and sparked many to offer their own solutions.

Plan A assumes that the state would at best provide funding to continue the system’s current services while slowly replacing aging boats.

At the hearing, several speakers said WSF was not getting its due as a part of the state’s highway system.

Bainbridge Ferry Advisory Committee member Torin Larsen said that if other Washington residents compared the expense of ferries to the cost of maintaining roads and bridges, the system would seem like a good deal.

Bainbridge FAC Chair Martha Burke pointed to the millions spent just planning the Alaska Way viaduct rebuild as proof DOT has money to spend.

“When they tell us there is no money, we should take a look at it,” Burke said. “There is money, it’s just not being spent on us.”

Debbi Lester offered up a Plan C, which would trim WSF’s administration by 25 percent, focus on boat building rather than terminals and securing sustainable funding. Lester and others recommended opening bids on new ferries to yards outside of Washington to cut costs and allow federal funding.

Phil Whitener suggested both Plan A and B be scuttled in favor of a grander vision. Rather than sticking with the classic ferry design, WSF could utilize modern technology and float a fleet of smaller, alternative fuel vessels he said.

“We should not accept small thinkers,” Whitener said.

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Have more to say?

WSF will accept comments on the long-range plan through Jan. 21.

Comments can be E-mailed to wsfplanning@wsdot.wa.gov or mailed to Washington State Ferries, Attn. Joy Goldenberg, 2901 3rd Ave., Seattle, WA 98121.

Full text of the long-range plan and more information on the planning process can be found at this link: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/News/2008/12/DraftLRP_121908.htm