The McCann Ferry, which carries just a few people at a time across the Eel River, is decidedly the pipsqueak among 35 ferry services in the country that recently received grants to improve their facilities. It doesn’t transport cars and mobs of people like most of the venerable old beasts on the list, such as the Fort Gates Ferry, in Putnam County, Fla., the oldest-operating U.S. ferry at 157 years of age. Nor can it begin to imagine the crowds aboard ferries servicing Staten Island, various locales in Washington State or even Lake Powell in Utah.
But quantity of users and size of the vessel aren’t the driving criteria behind the $39,354,654 in grants issued under the Federal Highway Administration's Ferry Boat Program. Filling a transportation gap is, according to a news release put out by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
"These grants are all about making it easier for people to get to work and go about their daily lives," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
The grantees:
AK
Pelican
$2,560,000
AL
Mobile Bay
$405,000
AR
Peel
$256,000
AZ
Lake Havasu
$2,600,000
CA
McCann
$120,000
Larkspur
$2,000,000
FL
Drayton Island (two grants)
$848,000
Fort Gates
$816,000
KY
Valley View
$600,000
LA
M/V Thomas Jefferson
$1,034,000
Six Ferry Vessels in New Orleans (new marine radar)
$196,180
MA
Salem
$2,530,613
Fairhaven Vessel Maintenance Facility
$500,000
ME
North Haven and Vinalhaven
$360,000
Little and Great Diamond Islands
$400,000
MI
Detroit Wayne County Port Authority
$2,400,000
MS
Ship Island
$223,020
NC
M/V Hyde
$960,000
State Shipyard
$1,440,000
NJ
Bayshore
$3,000,000
NY
Staten Island Ferry Maintenance Building
$1,000,000
Ocean Beach
$1,100,000
Whitehall
$2,000,000
OH
Ohio River
$260,000
Kelleys Island
$2,000,000
OR
Canby (M.J. Lee)
$1,000,000
TX
Galveston
$1,440,000
Port Aransas
$2,745,802
Harbor Island
$738,039
UT
Lake Powell
$240,000
WA
Guemes Ferry Anacortes Dock
$320,000
Vashon Island Water Taxi
$1,482,000
Steilacoom
$480,000
Washington State Ferries
$1,300,000
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