Betsy Peabody Sent - City of Bainbridge Island

From: Paul Svornich
Sent: Thu 10/14/2010 12:40 PM
To: Kim Brackett; Kirsten Hytopoulos; Bill Knobloch; Debbi Lester; Barry Peters; Bob Scales; CityAdmin
Cc: Tom Kane; Sandra Davis; Ross West; Mark Leese; John Peters; David Lynch; Dave Ullin
Subject: Paul Svornich comments on WSF offer to city
Dear Council Members,
In regards to the DOT/WSF offer of $2,000,000 or a 20 year lease on 1 acre of land I would like to offer a few
observations. First off, from past experience I think that we can all count on the ferry system not sharing full
disclosure of their agenda unless it is in their best interest to do so.
It is fair to say that the Ferry System, like most state agencies, is low on funding these days. We have also all
heard of studies that indicate that the current ferry maintenance yard is economically inferior to using full capacity,
24 hour shipyard contractors for ferry maintenance at “full service” shipyards. If the legislature were to
force the DOT to use privately owned, full service shipyards for all ferry maintenance in order to save tax payer
money then it might also be in the states best interest to force the DOT to sell the Eagle Harbor Ferry maintenance
yard property at some point since its high value may not justify its use as nothing but a storage facility
for just a few old boats.For all we know this might already be on their internal horizon. If this were to happen
the property would be sold for the highest price use and that would probably be to a developer that would build
high end Condo’s and a private marina for the condo owners. To have a restriction on 2.5 acres (area A) that
must be used for industrial public maritime use would decrease the value of the property significantly. Nobody
wants to buy a condo that might someday have a travel lift passing by their veranda. And no developer will want
to pay full price on a property that has that sort of restriction written into it.
It is sad for me to see some of you jumping at the chance to forsake your only real bargaining chip (your claim
on area A, not the 1 acre they are offering) in getting a potentially very special slice of “working waterfront”
sometime in the future. It saddens me to think that some of you are willing to give all that up for future generations
just for a lousy $2,000,000 today. Let it go, this is chump change compared to the increase of value that
the property will have if the DOT can successfully eliminate the city’s legal bind on area A. Please look into this
issue with greater depth, support the hiring of a “real” negotiator and don’t sell our children and grandchildren
short for a lousy few bucks that will seem even more lousy as hyperinflation begins to accelerate in future years.
Please don’t be led to have the city play the part of the fool once again. Some of us are just plain tired of it.
Sincerely,
Paul Svornich