Champion's Auto Ferry (Update)

But he wants rates back at 2009 level

Ferry’s owner: I can wait to retire

By Christina Hall Free Press Staff Writer

   The president of a ferry service between Harsens Island and Algonac said he is willing to delay retirement for one or two years if the company is allowed to increase revenue to previously approved 2009 levels, giving it the finances to hire and train an operations manager to take over for him.

   “Please understand that it is my sincere desire to avert any suspension of service,” David Bryson wrote in a hand-delivered letter Friday from Champion’s Auto Ferry to the Michigan Public Service Commission. “I would love to establish a contractual relationship with the State where I agree not to abandon the service and you agree to allow me to charge a reasonable price to my customers for my efforts.”

   “If not, there is no point in my remaining active in the company,” Bryson said.

   Friday was the deadline for the company to submit a proposal on how to continue transportation service to the island at the mouth of the St. Clair River after Bryson retires. The 24-7, year-round ferry is the only way visitors and about 1,200 island residents can get to and from the mainland, other than by plane or private boat.

   Bryson submitted a letter to the PSC on July 27 indicating his intent to retire and giving official notice that the company intends to discontinue ferry service at some point. The letter stated that the company was being “regulated out of business.”

   The PSC has denied requests to raise rates, including a $1 rate hike in April. A round-trip ticket for a vehicle is $7.

   A PSC order Aug. 14 directed the company to file an initial proposal for how a transition might be accomplished. It was to include consolidated financial statements; a timeline and description of the proposed transition and other information.

   PSC spokeswoman Judy Palnau said Monday that public comments can be filed until Jan. 30. The commission will file a report with recommendations by March1. She said the PSC had no immediate response to Bryson’s proposal, saying it “speaks through its orders.”

   Nan Elizabeth Casey, an attorney for the company, said the issue comes down to money.

   “There’s a lot of ways to get money, a rate increase, appropriations from government agencies, private money,” she said. “It has to come from somewhere.”

   Bryson wrote that he reinvested $50,000 back into the company to buy fuel in January to continue the operation for another two months.

   “Whether any additional money is reinvested back into the company to continue operations past that point or is invested elsewhere depends on what; if any, ‘Return on Investment’ you might now be willing to allow,” he wrote.

   Financial documents submitted by Bryson showed revenue declined from a high of more than $1.8 million in 2009 to about $1.6 million in 2011.

   The commission has received a half-dozen letters — including some supporting a rate hike. A letter from the Harsens Island St. Clair Flats Association cited everything from the ferry service needing a new boat, to fewer island visitors because of the economy and island residents leaving to find jobs.

   “While no one wants a rate increase and there is a valid concern that any rate increase will exacerbate an already bad situation , there is an equal and perhaps greater concern; that the ferry will be forced out of business. Should that happen, everyone would be left without a means to get on and off the island. This cannot be allowed to happen. There can be no interruption of service,” association president Patrick Feighan wrote.

   The letter said elderly and sick residents would be put at great peril; children could not get to school and people could not get to and from work.

Champion's Auto Ferry (Update)

Ferry service between Algonac and Harsens Island still in limbo

By Christina Hall Free Press Staff Writer

   The ferry service between Harsens Island and Algonac has until Friday to submit a proposal on how to continue transportation service to and from the island after the company’s president retires.

   David Bryson, president of Champion’s Auto Ferry, said Wednesday that the business plans to file by the deadline set by the Michigan Public Service Commission four months ago. Plans haven’t been finalized yet, he said.

   Bryson said he still plans to retire, but is not sure when.

   The ferry, which operates 24-7, except during ice jams in the St. Clair River, is the only way for the island’s visitors and roughly 1,200 year-round residents to get to and from the mainland, other than by private boat. There is no other ferry or bridge, though the Detroit International Bridge Co. said in August that it was ready to resurrect plans to build a bridge to the island at the mouth of the St. Clair River in Clay Township.

   Bryson submitted a letter to the commission July 27 indicating his intention to retire and that the company intends to discontinue ferry service at some unspecified point in the future. It also stated that the company was being “regulated out of business.” The commission has denied requests to raise rates.

   “Interested parties can file comments on the proposal and related matters until Jan. 30. The commission will review the company’s proposal and comments and file a report by March1with recommendations.

   As of Wednesday, five comments from four parties were filed with the commission.

   Bryson said a rate increase would give him the financial resources to hire and train someone to replace him. But, he said, he hasn’t been approached by anyone about taking over the ferry service.

   “Nobody wants to get involved with a business that doesn’t make any money,” he said.

   A letter from island resident Paul Scott Kuebler requests the commission approve a fare increase in fees “to preserve a service upon which our island community is extremely dependent to the extent that the lack of dependable ferry service would visit economic ruin upon the entire community.”

   John Fannon, chairman of the Harsens Island Transportation Authority, submitted a letter highlighting Bryson’s problems and to make sure that, “in the future, we are charged a fair and stable ferry rate.”

KIRTHMON F. DOZIER/DETROIT FREE PRESS

Crossing from Harsens Island, the Middle Channel ferry arrives at the Algonac dock last summer. It transports cars and pedestrians.

Ferry and/or Bridge (Update)

Moroun revives Harsens Island bridge plan

Execs: No state money needed for project

By Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki and John Gallagher Free Press Staff Writers

   Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel (Matty) Moroun may build a second bridge after all. But this one wouldn’t be to Canada.

   Moroun’s Detroit International Bridge Co. announced Wednesday it was ready to resurrect plans to build a bridge to Harsens Island, now that the owner of the island’s lone car ferry service has said he plans to retire and shut his business down.

   The bridge company already owns the necessary land on the mainland and the island, as part of an aborted plan to build a bridge about five years ago, said company President Dan Stamper. The company had talked to state officials and done most of the preliminary work, including pulling most of the necessary permits, Stamper said.

   Then the economy crashed and the plans were shelved. But not forgotten.

   “The issue is, is the economy strong enough to go forward?” Stamper said. “I think the economy has been replaced by the threat of no service to the island.”

   The ferry, operated by Champions Auto Service, is the only year-round link to the mainland for Harsens Island’s 1,200 permanent residents. It transported more than 275,000 vehicles in 2011, according to the Michigan Public Service Commission.

   Stamper said it would take about 18 months to build the bridge across the North Channel to the island, which sits at the mouth of the St. Clair River in St. Clair County’s Clay Township.

   The North Channel is about a quarter of a mile wide, according to Clay Township Supervisor Tom Krueger.

   Stamper said his company would build a bascule bridge, which is a drawbridge that opens in the middle, so it would not hamper boat traffic.

   Stamper said the toll bridge would charge rates comparable to Champion ferry’s current rate of $7 per round-trip ride for a car. No state money would be used to build the bridge, Stamper said.

   Moroun, 85, who with his family owns the Ambassador Bridge, has battled Michigan and Canadian officials for years over his proposal to build a second span over the Detroit River next to the Ambassador. He has spent millions of dollars trying to block plans backed by Gov. Rick Snyder to build a competing public bridge about two miles downriver from the Ambassador.

   The legal wrangles over the proposed public bridge form only part of a web of lawsuits and other legal entanglements.

   Moroun and Stamper, his top aide, were jailed for a night earlier this year for civilian contempt of court stemming from the long-running dispute with the Michigan Department of Transportation over construction of the Gateway project.

   Gateway was a joint project with MDOT to ease congestion at the Ambassador Bridge by connecting it directly to nearby interstates through a series of new roads and ramps.

   In addition, Moroun has either filed lawsuits or been sued in local, state, federal and Canadian courts in multiple disputes involving, among other things, control of the City of Detroit’s Riverside Park near his bridge and the demolition of houses near his bridge in Windsor.

   Several years ago, the Morouns also proposed building a bridge between Buffalo, N.Y., and Ft. Erie, Ontario, but that proposal came to nothing.

   Ferry owner David Bryson notified the Michigan Public Service Commission in July that he intends to retire. The MPSC posted the news on Tuesday, stunning the island community, which swells to about 5,000 during the summer months.

   There is only a smattering of island businesses. All goods and supplies come via ferry, and islanders rely on it to get to everything from shopping to visiting doctors on the mainland. Even the school buses must travel by ferry.

   A bridge would probably be welcome news to the islanders, Krueger said.

   “I think the people on the island are looking for some stable ingress and egress to get on and off the island,” Krueger said.

   Several years ago, a survey found islanders split about 50-50 on whether they wanted a bridge. But Krueger said he thinks recurring issues such as rates and now the ferry owner’s retirement have likely changed that in the bridge’s favor.

   “It’s kind of a fantasyland for a lot of people,” Krueger said of Harsens Island. “It’s kind of a throwback to days gone by.”

   Bryson gave no date for his retirement in his letter to the MPSC.

   MPSC spokeswoman Judy Palnau said the Harsens Island Transportation Authority informed the state agency that the bridge company planned to build a bridge to the island when the ferry operators applied for a rate hike in 2011 that was denied.

   The MPSC has given Champions Auto Service 120 days to submit a proposal for transportation to and from the island. After that is submitted, the agency’s staff will write a report with recommendations by March 1.

   • CONTACT PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI:

   MMWALSH@FREEPRESS.COM  

Manuel (Matty) Moroun’s bridge company already owns the necessary land on the mainland and Harsens Island.

Free to retire ferry service

   In the Aug. 15 article “Harsens Island fears for ferry service,” we learned that David Bryson, the operator of the service, wants to retire. Bryson reportedly sought a rate hike in May but was rebuffed, and apparently feels that it’s no longer worth it for him to keep working. But township supervisor Tom Krueger opines that “even though he’s a private business … I don’t believe the MPSC would let him just shut down.”

   As far as I can tell from the article, Bryson is a free citizen, which precludes enslaving him, even for an essential service. It sounds as if the Harsens Island community had better buy and operate a public bridge or ferry. And, by the way, don’t ask the rest of us to belly up to the bar to help pay for it; we didn’t ask you to live on an island.

   Ralph Emmons Dearborn

FILE PHOTO BY MARY SCHROEDER/DETROIT FREE PRESS

   The operator of the Harsens Island ferry service said he wants to retire.

THINK! (Bridges of Every Ilk!)

Harsens Island fears for ferry service

Owner planning to retire, shut down

By Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki Free Press Staff Writer

   For the 1,200 full-time residents of Harsens Island, the car ferry run by Champions Auto Service is their only year-round link to the mainland.

   They use it to get to work, travel to doctor appointments and go shopping. Children depend on it to get to school.

   So residents of the island at the mouth of the St. Clair River were shocked Tuesday when news began to trickle out that Champions’ owner wants to retire and shut down the ferry service.

   David Byson didn’t give the Michigan Public Service Commission a date for when he would end the ferry service.

   “That’s awful. We have to have a way to get across,” said Adele Raska, a 25-year island resident. “Everybody has to go across, whether you want to or not. We have to go to shop, we have to go to doctors, we have to go for everything.”

   Although many residents have small boats and there is a tiny airstrip on the island, the ferry service is the only publictransportation to the mainland, operating even in the midst of winter.

   There is only a scattering of restaurants and small businesses on the 16-square-mile island, which is part of St. Clair County’s Clay Township. The island’s marshy interior is ringed by both year-round and vacation homes, with its population swelling to about 5,000 in the summer.

   Byson, who couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday, notified the MPSC in a July 28 letter that he intends to retire.

   On Tuesday, the MPSC announced it was launching an investigation into transportation to the island. The MPSC wants to ensure a smooth transition from the current service to whatever service may replace it, said spokeswoman Judy Palnau.

   The commission gave Champions Ferry 120 days to submit a proposal for transportation to and from the island, Palnau said.

   After that is submitted, the agency’s staff will write a report with recommendations by March 1.

   Even the township wasn’t notified of Champions’ intent until the MPSC posted its notice.

   “It took us by surprise to us here at the township. We didn’t know anything about it,” said Clay Township Supervisor Tom Krueger. “The only information we have is on the MPSC website.”

   There have been threats to close the ferry in the past, Krueger said. Champions also sought a rate hike in May from the MPSC, but was denied.

   Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel (Matty) Moroun has talked about building a bridge between the island and mainland, but Krueger said that idea seems to have died as Moroun fights to stop a second bridge to Canada.

   “Even though he’s a private business, I do believe he’s an essential service, and I don’t believe the MPSC would let him just shut down,” Krueger said of the ferry service.

   • CONTACT PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI:

   MMWALSH@FREEPRESS.COM  

2005 PHOTO BY J. KYLE KEENER/DETROIT FREE PRESS

   Aferry makes the trip to Harsens Island. Ferry service is the only public transportation to the mainland.