Communities Push For Four New Ferries

How do you persuade a Legislature with a tight grip on the state’s purse strings to spend millions on four new passenger ferries?

Take a boat to Olympia.

Dozens of community leaders from the Kitsap Peninsula, Bainbridge Island and Port Townsend, Wash., chartered a high-speed passenger boat from Bremerton to Olympia on Wednesday to draw attention to their plea for expanded ferry service.

The Legislature rejected the request last year.

The “Olympia 1998” demonstration was organized to persuade legislators to support high-speed passenger-only service between Kingston, Wash., and Seattle. But that goal was expanded to include other communities after a demonstration last fall by the Greater Kingston Chamber of Commerce.

The U.S. Navy has said it would like to see passenger-only service connecting Bremerton, Kingston and the naval base at Everett.