For the second day in a row, St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman made a trip across Tampa Bay to pitch officials on that side of the bay on a $350,000 investment into a six-month high-speed ferry pilot project between downtown St. Pete and Tampa.
And for the second day in a row, he was successful.
While there's been talk of ferries traversing the bay for years with little to show for it, what's different this time around was a small influx of BP oil disaster settlement money, some of which Kriseman and St. Pete City Council opted to set aside for the ferry.
Tuesday, it was Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn who announced the city's tentative buy-in on the program; on Wednesday, it was all but one of the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners.
As he did Tuesday, Kriseman touted the concept as a potential economic driver, one his constituents have wanted for years.
“This is something that I know the residents in my community have been talking about for a very long time," he told the commission. "I am assuming that you all have probably heard in your community on this side of the bay; people wondering how two cities and two counties that are surrounded by water have no waterfront transporation.”
And even if there isn't yet an incredible amount of detail on what the service would look like, or how much (if any) money it will bring in, the commission — all except Commissioner Stacy White, anyway, and Al Higginbotham, who was absent — gave an initial thumbs-up because of the potential economic development a ferry linking Tampa and St. Pete's downtown areas could bring.
“We do need to make better use of our waterways," said Commissioner Sandy Murman. "We do have the opportunity to expand tourism with this ferry opportunity, and creating the first step of a regional transportation network. This is an investment, and I think you always can't get that return back that first, second year, but you will get that return back, because this creates another notch for Visit Tampa Bay to market this area to other people, because we have this bridge now, between the two.”
The commission agreed to Murman's proposal to direct county staff to find $350,000 it could apply to the project, which the commission would then resolve to earmark in its budget for the ferry service.
But there was a handful of conditions, given how nascent the concept is:
- -Pinellas and Hillsborough counties as well as the cities of St. Pete and Tampa invest similar shares of money.
- -After working with HMS, the company that will likely run the service, Kriseman would present a finalized budget, business plan and operating plan to the Hillsborough County Commission.
- -Kriseman will also present an operating plan and marketing strategy to Hillsborough tourism officials to ensure Hillsborough hotels, restaurants and attractions will also benefit.
- -Pinellas, Hillsborough, Tampa and St. Pete will share any revenue generated.
- -And that Kriseman look for potential service, or at least a demonstration line, that could run to southern Hillsborough County, where there has long been a call for ferry service.
Kriseman still has to get buy-in from the Pinellas County Commission, as well as Tampa City Council. His ask for each is $350,000, a total of $1.4 million, though he acknowledged that the cities may have to pay a little bit more because of the dock modifications and other infrastructure work they might have to undertake at launch sites. Assuming all approve, he will then begin to negotiate with HMS on the cost and hammer out details of the service.
“Clearly the devil is in the details and we need to get additional information to make sure that this is a sound investment,” said Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan. “However, if our region is going to continue to take the next step in toward becoming a world-class community, we need to create multimodal transportation options in our region.”
Kriseman also said he'd like help lobbying legislators for money at the state level for $900,000 to provide a second boat to make service more efficient; having another vessel would allow for perhaps six or eight trips a day instead of three or four.
Commissioner Kevin Beckner asked what a good measure of success for the pilot program would be, to which Kriseman replied, "usage will really be key" at this point, more so than revenue generated.
Beckner added he was concerned that the pilot's six-month duration might not be enough to gauge how successful the program will ultimately be.
“That's my only point of concern, it's, is six months long enough?” Beckner said. “Because, when you bring a new mode of transportation like this in, I don't know…in other communities how long it's taken for usage to ramp up. There's going to be a long time when we're going to market this so that people know this service is here.”
For some commissioners, the lack of detail was something of a concern.
“While I appreciate your thoughtfulness, your insight, at trying to bring our two communities together…I must tell you I have some concerns. I really, really deeply have some concerns about this project,” said Commissioner Les Miller. “How do we tell people in my district, the north part of my district or even the southern part, that's scuffled every day, that we want to put…$350,000 in a pilot project?"
Miller ultimately supported the proposal, but said he would not continue to do so if the details didn't surface.
Commissioner Stacy White, the only one to vote against it, said he would have supported it had the cities paid a greater share than the counties, and had there been more details in the initial proposal.
“First, I would have liked to see this vetted between your staff and our staff and brought to us as a more structured proposal,” he said. “Secondly, I believe wholeheartedly that the cities of St. Pete and Tampa should be responsible for a significantly higher proportion of the funding.”
It's unclear when Tampa City Council or Pinellas County Commission will weigh Kriseman's pitch
This article appears in Jan 7-13, 2016.