Amherstburg Council discusses Boblo ferry service

The turmoil over the Boblo Island ferry disruption was front and centre in Amherstburg Monday night.

Council touched on unanswered questions concerning reliability of the car ferry as it gets back in service, and the emergency back-up plan.

It was two weeks that felt too long for 250 Boblo Island residents.

“They’re very angry. They're very, very nervous about the situation given the fact that winter is coming,” said Coun. Diane Pouget.

The 15-vehicle passenger ferry was down for repairs and after a number of false starts , it was back up and running as of Friday night.

“Such extensive repairs were done that I’m hoping nothing else needs to be done for a long time,” said Boblo resident and Amherstburg Mayor, Michael Prue.

While service was down, island residents could still cross on a pontoon boat but many of their cars were stuck on the island.

“Those who had the car at home, like me, are unlucky because they couldn't get off with their car and then I found myself the vehicle-lesss,” said Prue.

Not only that, Boblo Island’s lone fire apparatus was taken off the island for an annual inspection the day before the ferry stopped running, leaving the island exposed — and some residents nearly ran out of propane.

“We're trying to be very calm and judicious about this. But in the end, people need to be protected,” said Prue.

The island is owned by Amico — residents pay $4,800 a year for the ferry service.

According to Prue, Amico filed an emergency plan with the town, indicating if the main ferry goes down a back-up would be in service within 10 minutes.

That didn’t happen, because the back-up ferry was also out of service.

“Even today, even though the ferry's operating and there's smiles on their faces, they're still asking me, what if that ferry goes down for any reason? What if it goes down again? When are we getting the backup ferry back?” said Prue.

That was the nature of Pouget’s request on Monday night.

She wants town staff to gather information on that back-up ferry and give residents a chance to have a say.

“They deserve to have the same services that you and i have when we live anyplace else in town,” she said.

Delegates will be invited to speak at council when the report comes back Nov. 27.