A Marin County investment company will receive $20 million in federal money to start a ferry service from southern Sonoma County as the result of last-minute change in federal transportation legislation.
The allocation for ferry service from Port Sonoma was part of the $286.5 billion federal transportation bill approved Friday and apparently was added by Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, chairman of the House transportation committee.
Although Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D- Petaluma, had sought money for ferry service from Port Sonoma, the request did not designate a specific recipient and was not part of legislation approved last month by the House.
On Friday, Woolsey issued a news release listing various federal allocations for North Bay transportation projects but didn't include the grant to North Bay Ferry Service of Larkspur because she didn't realize the funds had been approved.
Woolsey wasn't the only one surprised by the grant.
The Golden Gate Bridge District, San Francisco Bay Area Water Transit Authority and Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit, all of which have stakes in North Bay transit issues, also were unaware of the funding.
North Bay Ferry Service is a company started in March 2004 specifically to operate ferry service between Port Sonoma and other Bay Area locations.
The company is owned by Skip Berg, owner of Port Sonoma and former owner of Infineon Raceway.
J.T. Wick, manager of Port Sonoma, said he and others have lobbied Young and other influential congressmen in an effort to get federal funds for North Bay ferry service.
Former North Coast Rep. Doug Bosco said Tuesday he also had lobbied congressmen for funds to provide ferry service at Port Sonoma.
Young, chairman of the House-Senate conference committee that negotiated the final bill, was unavailable Tuesday for comment on the 11th-hour addition.
Wick said Tuesday his company hopes to have service in place by 2009 or 2010. Although San Francisco, Oakland and the San Francisco Giants' SBC Park are potential destinations, Wick said exact routes have not been determined.
The federal grant is to be paid over four years at $5 million a year. The funds are to be used for construction of a ferry terminal and to buy U.S.-made ferry boats.
Berg Holdings, which created North Bay Ferry Service, also owns the 110-acre Port Sonoma marina, which has berths for recreational and commercial vessels, and Moose Boats, which makes aluminum boats for the Navy and for state law enforcement agencies.
The port sits on the Petaluma River at the Sonoma and Napa county lines, with access from Highway 37 and from the Northwestern Pacific Railroad, which is being proposed for a commute rail line in Sonoma and Marin counties.
"It is the unique nature of the site. It is the only one . . . that has water, highway and rail," Wick said. "The more modes of transit that you can incorporate, the more significance the site gains. That was the initial attraction to federal officials."
Wick also said his company may be looking to form a partnership with either the Water Transit Authority or the Golden Gate Bridge District, which runs ferries from Larkspur and Sausalito to San Francisco.
Sonoma County Supervisor Mike Kerns, who also sits on the bridge district board, said he has questions about how the funding procedure will work with a company receiving public funds but isn't too concerned.
"While I sometimes have concerns about how the federal government goes about doing business, I don't think they go about handing out $20 million without some strings attached," he said. "They are pretty good about making sure that the money is spent how they want it to be spent."
Port Sonoma had been considered by the Water Transit Authority as a ferry site, with the potential of serving about 1,300 passengers a day, or about 10 percent of all passengers now carried by Bay Area ferries.
But Steve Castleberry, chief executive officer of the authority, said it was not high on the list because of the environmentally sensitive bayshore on which it sits. The marina is surrounded by the bay, the Petaluma River and land owned or with conservation easements secured by the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District and the Coastal Conservancy.
Castleberry said it is the environmentally sensitive nature that could be the site's fatal flaw.
Even though Woolsey supports it as a transit alternative, she also said it may be difficult to develop as a ferry port.
"It has a lot of work ahead of it," she said. "It is a bit of a longshot they can pass muster."
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