Minutes 06/11/1929 - Laserfiche WebLink

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June ll, 1929 The following report was read from the Superintendent of the Ferries: "Portsmouth, Va., June Oouncil of the City of Portsmouth, and Board of Supervisors of Norfolk County, Portsmouth, Virginia. 7th, 1929. Dear Sirs:- May, 1929. Herewith is submitted a report of the operation of the Ferries for the Month of Traffic Attached herewith are tabulations showing the passenger and vehicular receipts o~months of March,- April and May 1929. These figures, tlLrough an inadvertency, were not previously submitted. Analysis of these figares shows a decrease in both vehicular.and passenger revenues for the mgnth of May, amounting to $~64.93~- Since ~the~fi~st .of the jyear there ~has been a total decrease xn vehicular traffic amounting to $6,051,97, which is .O33~ of the revenue for the same period last year, and a total.dec, ease in passenger traffic of $1,~d~4.5O, or .012~% of the revenue for last year. The decrease in revenue is ~partly attributable to .the ,Jordan' bridge competition, and partly due to business depression- As the ,Jordan' bridge does not handle any pedestrians worth mentioning the loss of pedestria~ trs~ffio a~nnot possibly be at- tributed .tO bridge competition, and it is reasonable to suppose that as .the ~pedestrian traffic is decreased the vehicular business would decrease in reasonable proportion. A traffic survey has been made analyzing~the traffic crossin~ both the bridge and the ferries. The d~ta from this survey has been eha~rted. All of the information would not be practicable in a written report, howe~er, thecharts may be seen upon request. This survey indicates that the bridge is handling about 20% of the total traffic crossing the river. Another purpose of this survey was to determine the origin of the traffic cross- ing the bridge and the Ferries. It has~been ascertained~that the Ferries are handling by far a larger percentage of the tourist traffic than any other classification. This is shown by the fact that, as stated above, the bridge handles 20% of all traffic and Only 9% of the tour- ist traffig~ ~as~muchas during ~he period of the survey tourist traffic only represented less than ~/lO%~of the total traffzc, I have concluded that it is not so necessary at this time to do any further advertising to encourage tourist to use the Ferries. It seems that time and money would be better spen~ encouraging local people to use the Ferries. Ferry Service In view of the bridge, competition it has been necessary to give better service. Just recently we have been operating four boats during the dayIight hours and maintaining a 12-minute schedule between twelve midnight and two A.M. Also in the past we have given a 30- minute schedule between two and six A.M. Beginning tonight we are going to give 20-minute schedule from two to six in the morning. This is considered advisable for the reason that the beach resorts are open very late and that vehioules very f~equently, after just having missed a boat, 1,cave the ferry and take the bridge route. Maintenance There has been considerable maintenance work done on the Ferries this Spring. The pile work'which was previously reported has been completed. It consisted of driving 137 piles in the Norfolk slips, refacing pile clusters and supporting fence. There were 151 piles driven in the Portmmouth s~ips, refacing and rebuilding pile clusters and completely rebuilding one half of one fence. It is no~ anticipated that any further work will be necessary on the docks within a yea~and aothing to any great extent for possibly two or three years. The flooring in the Portsmouth Terminal is being entirely rebuilt. This is made necessary by the fact that the flooring had become worn thin in spots and also that the ground sills were deteriorating and cansing the floor to settle. New ground sills that were necessary have been replaced and most of the sub-flooring and entire sturface is being renewed. This work will be completed this we~k, or possibly the first of next. The ferry boats are at present having their bottoms painted, ~nich work is done twice a year. No large expenditure is anticipated on ~he maintenance of the boats in the near future. personnel On account of the increased amount of mainten~ance work there has been employed one additional os~vpenter and two helpers.~- One painter's helper has been released and one fireman has been employed~ Au extra ticket seller on the Portsmouth side has.been employed and a special police officer on the Norfolk side has been employed to assist in h~udling traf- fic and preventing the parking of autos on the ferry property. On June 1st our Naval Architect, Eads Johnson, certified to 60% progress on the steamer 'Oity of Norfolk' being built by the Spear Engineers, Inc.~ Payment to the Spear Engineers on this account has been somewhat complicated for the reasom that there was a claim of the General Electric Oompany for payment of the electrical e~ouipment, for which 'a lien was filed in the City of Norfolk ~nd a written notice sent to the City and County. Some time ago the Spear Engineers assigmed their third payment to the American National Bank. There was a slight question as to whethe=t~is payment could be made to Spear Engineers with the lien of the General Electric Company, and also as to whether or not this lien has priority over the-assignment to the American National Bank. The attorneys for the City and County were consulted and it was advised that Spear Engineers be p~id the amount of the third pay- men~, less the lien of the General Electric Company, which money was placed in the bank in escrow, drawing 6% interest, until Such time as it is decided what final disposition is to be made of this escrow money. Respectfully submitted, NORFOLK COUNTY FEB~IES~