PORT TOWNSEND — Washington State Ferries officials are expected to strike up a conversation next week with Pierce County leaders that could lead to extension of the ferry Steilacoom II’s lease beyond August.

Pierce County officials on Wednesday said they were willing to consider extending the lease — and were waiting to hear from state ferries system officials.

A ferries spokeswoman said that more on the matter would be made public next week.

“We’re very, very conscious that we need a plan,” said Marta Coursey, adding that the state was ready to continue its “conversation with Pierce County with the option of extending the lease.”

The 50-car Steilacoom II — which returned to service on the Port Townsend-Keystone route last Thursday after a Coast Guard-required five-week annual maintenance stay at Todd Pacific Shipyards in Seattle — has served the North Olympic Peninsula across Admiralty Inlet to Whidbey Island since January 2008.

The state leased it from Pierce County to replace the two 80-year-old Steel Electric vehicle ferries that plied the route after state Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond pulled all four of the aging ferries from service in November 2007, citing unsafe pitted and corroded hulls.

Todd Shipyards is now designing a $65.5 million 64-car, 750-passenger ferry to replace the Steilacoom II on the route, but it is not scheduled to be complete until June 2010.

Pierce County

While the Port Townsend-Keystone route relies on temporary service of the Steilacoom II, the vessel’s owner, Pierce County, is limited to the Christine Anderson ferry on its Steilacoom-Anderson Island-Ketron Island run.

When that ferry can’t operate, Pierce County feels the absence of the Steilacoom II.

Last May, for example, the state ferry Rhododendron, which regularly runs between Point Defiance and Tahlequah on Vashon Island, was called in to serve the Pierce County route while the Christine Anderson was in for repairs.

One ranking Pierce County officials said that, while the county wants the Steilacoom II back, it understands the state and the Peninsula’s need for the ferry.

“We’ve experienced a serious amount of maintenance costs on the Christine Anderson, but based on what the state’s situation is, we would be willing to consider extending the lease,” said Mike Esher, Pierce County airport and ferries administrator.

“The formal response is that there is no predetermined decision of, ‘No, we’re not going to renew the lease.'”

The 213-foot Christine Anderson, which went into county service in July 1994, can carry 54 cars and 250 passengers. The slightly smaller Steilacoom II joined the county fleet in January 2007.

Toby Rickman, Pierce County Public Works deputy director, said discussions in the past with the state ferries system officials have been varied.

“There’s been several ideas floated out there,” Rickman said.

“There’s been ideas about the county building a new boat, and the state buying the existing boat, but that has not been agreed to or funded.”

Buying the Steilacoom II was not on the state’s list of options, Coursey said, because there is no money budgeted, especially at a time when the state faces a $5.1 billion budget deficit.

Rickman said the state has suggested that the lease be extended.

“That hasn’t been requested of us, so basically we are waiting to hear what the state wants to do,” he said.

He said Pierce County has discussed with the state Department of Corrections serving the prison at McNeil Island, “but we certainly couldn’t do that if we don’t have a boat.”

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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.