Retired WSF Captain Ken Burtness believes WSF ‘has turned the corner’
Sunday, December 1, 2024
by Jeff Noedel
Captain Ken Burtness had just one employer his entire adult life: Washington State Ferries.
He joined the system in 1970, when he was 16 years old. He worked summers until 1978, when he went full-time with WSF. After a period of training early in his full-time career, he basically stayed as a Captain on the Anacortes routes his entire career: Anacortes-Sidney and the inter-island route. He retired in 2008, but returned as a Relief Captain the summer of 2016 to help keep the boats running during that peak season.
An Anacortes native, Ken moved his family to Lopez Island 46 years ago. Ken’s roots in the San Juans go all the way back to 1888.
San Juan County citizens still get the benefit of those decades of expertise because Ken serves as one of five members of the San Juan County WSF Ferry Advisory Committee. The FAC provides study and recommends resolutions in ferry transportation matters as these affect the San Juan Islands.
At the recent “Fix Our Ferries” legislative summit in Mukilteo, Ken spoke to SanJuans.Today about his belief that the worst for WSF service in the San Juans may be behind us.
He said, “Yes. There’s actually some been some good things happening lately. I’ve been pretty impressed with Washington State Ferries… seems to be really improving their bandwidth and the way in how much they’re able to do. You know — going back a few years here — it was obvious that they did not have the capacity to really respond to much of anything. I think they were just really just trying to keep the ship from sinking. And, you know, in fact, meetings and such, we’d bring up things and they were like, ‘Yeah, we know that’s a problem. But, you know, we can’t deal with it now.’ But this really turned the corner.”
“They got the funding. They were able to start hiring and training more people. And I think they brought on some new hires in the office that they’ve introduced us to at the FAC. They’re just solving some problems and getting more capacity to do things.”
Ken singled out one area in which WSF has made extraordinary progress, and he credits Gov. Jay Inslee by name. He said structural problems with the WSF reservations and ticketing software have been a stubborn problem for many years.
He noted that Inslee personally got involved late spring or early summer this year and caused the overhaul of the software systems to change from a three-year project to “something that is happening now.”
In conclusion, Ken said, “I’m really pleased with what the legislators had to say (at the Nov. 16 Fix Our Ferries summit in Mukilteo). They seemed to be pretty in tune with, from what I understand needs to be done. I talked to one legislator before the meeting, and mentioned that I was happy to see that it’s been acknowledged that this is going to be a $4 or $5 billion project. And he was right on board with that. He knows it. That’s a big thing right there to get the get an acknowledgment and an acceptance that it’s going to be that much money.”
