Emergency petition to keep ferry running to Lummi Island

[eridani]

Whatcom County Council has received notice from the chair of the Lummi Indian Business Council to cease ferry operations from Gooseberry Point no later than April 10, 2011. After more than 15 months of demands, deadlines, threats, failed negotiations, failed mediation, and uncertainty, the residents of Lummi Island WA are once again at the mercy of government agencies at odds. So far the Lummi Indian Business Council and The Bureau of Indian Affairs have declined to grant leasing rights to Whatcom County for the ferry to cross tidelands that the BIA holds in trust for the “Duwamish and other affiliated tribes" (including Lummi Nation).

At stake for Lummi Island residents is access to and from their homes by way of the island’s only public transportation connection to the mainland, the Whatcom County Ferry. The Whatcom County Ferry is part of the Whatcom County Public Road System and has been serving Washington State residents continuously since the 1920s. The ferry is a critical lifeline for 964 full-time residents (source: 2010 census) and many more summer residents that depend upon the ferry for food, medical supplies, ambulance, hospital and emergency services, law enforcement, education, fuel, utilities, transportation to and from work, and for other necessities available only on the mainland.

The ferry provided more than 180,000 round trips for riders last year, which includes visitors to the island by the hundreds who visit island family and friends or dine, bicycle, hike, or vacation here.

Please take a couple of minutes and go to the link below and sign the on-line petition to our Congressional Delegation. Your help is truly appreciated. Please forward this petition to friends, relatives, visitors, business associates, and customers. We need support from the entire nation.

Thank you for your help.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/220/please-help-keep-our-ferry-running/

[eridani]

1. Update 4/14/2011

Hello everyone:

To those of you who signed the online petition and forwarded it to friends thank you thank you thank you.

Thought I should up date everyone and let you know that our petition drive has helped, and the Lummi Island Ferry is still running as of this date. The Lummi Nation and Whatcom County resumed negotiations and enough progress was being made that the Lummi Nation moved the service cut off date to May 15th to show good faith and also to not strand all of us on the island. We are all hoping that there will be a settlement that everyone can live with. So another month of waiting while bigger fish decide our fate.