State grants Kalakala $100,000

The Kalakala, that famous but very rusty old Depression-era ferry, passed its 66th birthday this month with a little gift from the state -- a $100,000 grant.


	Kayakers make their way past the historic state ferry Kalakala, which is moored on Lake Union while it awaits hull inspection. Gilbert W. Arias / Seattle Post-Intelligencer Click for larger photo

The amount, a third of the $320,000 originally sought for the vessel, is a fraction of the $4.5 million recommended by the Legislature this year for history and heritage projects in communities on both sides of the Cascade Mountains.

But combined with a $285,000 federal grant that City Council accepted last year, "we're halfway to dry dock," Kalakala Foundation president Peter Bevis said.

The two grants, contingent in part on private matching money, are earmarked to get Kalakala into a dry dock, which is expected to cost upward of $700,000.

Once the ferry is in dry dock, the hull can be examined for the first time in 30 years.

Cursory inspections, however, have indicated the hull is in good shape, considering it survived a 1,700-mile tow from Alaska in 1998.

A fuller inspection would provide answers for safety regulators and insurers and could go a long way in providing a starting point for renovation and funding plans, Bevis said.

The state grant, administered through the 2001-2003 Heritage Capital Projects Fund, indicates that the financially troubled effort of restoring the vessel may have turned a corner.

Foundation board member David Ruble, who months ago helped organize a business plan that has been lacking for two years, said things are moving at "a fast clip."

"The board is meeting weekly, and we have more input from the business community, which is helping with estimates," said Ruble, a principal member of the Olympic Consulting Group, a software architecture and development firm.

Ruble hopes for-profit investors would support the non-profit organization.

The Kalakala's database indicates it is not wanting for popularity.

The latest total showed 672 dues-paying members. Many of them are among the 1,200 who signed up to be volunteers.

Each weekend, many volunteers young and old, nostalgic or curious, go to the boat's north Lake Union berth to work on the ferry.

Cash flow from private contributions, however, can't stay ahead of expenditures.

Nearly $38,000 is owed for basic bills, such as moorage, electricity, insurance and taxes alone. As a result, Bevis no longer can afford to mail a newsletter, and a portable toilet on board was repossessed.

In addition, the foundation still owes a big chunk of $65,000 rung up to pay a marine surveyor and tug company to rescue the vessel in 1998.

"Funding has been dismal, but with recent developments, there has been a new energy," Bevis said.

The art deco-style ferry was billed as the world's first streamlined ferry. The vessel made its debut on the Seattle waterfront July 3, 1935.

In those days, it carried an on-board orchestra and radio station and became a world-famous, state-of-the-art attraction synonymous with Seattle before the Space Needle.

Kalakala, which means "flying bird," shepherded 30 million people around Puget Sound, often to infamous engine vibrations.

In 1967, the vessel was retired and sold.

It wound up as a fish processor, deteriorating and forgotten on an Alaskan mud flat, before Bevis spearheaded efforts to rescue it and tow it to Seattle in 1998.

P-I reporter Mike Barber can be reached at 206-448-8018 or mikebarber@seattlepi.com

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