A new way to travel between Prescott and Ogdensburg may be tested this summer.
Prescott Mayor Brett Todd says they’re hoping to have a ferry pilot project run in the third week of July to coincide with Founders’ Day Weekend in Ogdensburg and the August Civic holiday weekend in Prescott. Mayor Todd says they are looking at running the ferry Friday, Saturday and Sunday on both weekends and probably four or five trips back and forth per day.
Mayor Todd says they are keeping the ferry fairly modest in size with room for 20 passengers. The project is based on some of the results from the feasibility study that was quite positive, according to Mayor Todd.
Mayor Todd adds they are still dealing with customs and immigration on both sides. He says the customs and immigration came back with some “extreme requirements” for security. Mayor Todd says they wanted a fairly significant building in Prescott that includes holding cells and offices. He says they can accommodate some of that in the marina building and some of it would be a little difficult to accommodate. Mayor Todd says they are talking with them now to see if they can relax some of the requirements.
Mayor Todd says they are very hopeful and it’s a huge project for tourism and cycling tourism in particular.