CHEBEAGUE ISLAND — About a month ago, Chebeague Island resident Deb Bowman noticed on a night ferry ride that an important lighted buoy was burned out. The buoy marked a channel on the approach to the island.
Bowman’s mind went to her daughter, who commutes by ferry at night to a job on the mainland.
“We had a fatality there last year,” Bowman said. “That buoy marks a very narrow channel.”
Bowman pointed out the unlit buoy to the deckhands and the ferry captain and they told her it had been out for a while. She contacted the Coast Guard in Portland and was told it had not been able to repair the buoy because of budget cutbacks.
Bowman persisted.
After she mentioned the 2012 accident, which took the life of longtime Chebeague resident Bill Whetham, a Coast Guard officer said the agency would repair the buoy during a training exercise. It is now relit, but the conversation left Bowman with some concerns about the Coast Guard’s ability to keep people safe while dealing with budget cuts.
“In our conversation, the officer expressed some unhappiness that he couldn’t do his job,” Bowman said.
The Coast Guard has taken a 25 percent budget cut this past year, according to First Coast Guard District spokesman Lt. Joe Klinker. That’s affected all the Coast Guard’s activities, from law enforcement to fisheries management.
When it comes to aids to navigation, which include buoys and lighthouses, those cuts have meant cutting hours and fuel costs. The Coast Guard has had to get creative and efficient about how to maintain the aids, said Petty Officer Second Class James Duvall, who coordinates aids to navigation repair in Portland.
“They’re usually putting it off until they have a few aids to go do,” Duvall said.
Of all the Coast Guard operational cuts, the reduction of service on aids to navigation may be the most noticeable to mariners. Gene Willard, owner and operator of the Portland Express Water Taxi, believes Casco Bay needs more aids to navigation, not fewer. Willard says that Portland is one of the busiest ports on the East Coast, and even tops New York for boat traffic. The difference between the two ports is that New York’s harbor deals with big ships, while most of the traffic coming in and out of Portland is smaller vessels. Such frequent comings and goings means that Maine boat captains need all the help they can get to stay safe.
“All the buoys should be lit,” Willard said. “They really do become hazardous to navigation when they’re just sticking out in the water in the dark.”