It's been nine years in the making, but Toledo will start designing and building a Marina District passenger terminal this summer to receive Great Lakes cruise ships and passengers with money to spend.
The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority board of directors approved spending $611,000 to match $2.45 million in federal money the port started receiving in 1997.
The city of Toledo has budgeted $1.5 million for the project.
The board also approved plans to hire Poggemeyer Design Group for $236,250 for design and construction management.
The port authority has to spend the federal money or risk losing it, said Jim Mettler, the port authority's vice president for new projects.
"There's a pretty healthy Great Lakes cruising industry, and there are several different companies that run full itineraries from the beginning of May to October.
"They are not well-known in this area because there is no port of call.
I admit I didn't know about it. I had heard of Delta Queen who does Steamboat cruises in Cinci, but I was not aware of cruises on the Great Lakes. So I set out to search.
At first it was not promising, the first link I found that advertised:
Information about cruise activity and ports on the Great Lakes, as well as ship photos, schedules, services and layouts.
Was a dead link, www.cruisingthegreatlakes.org.
Next was more positive, Great Lakes Cruising Coalition they list information on several cruises. Yet when I started to go into these links, very few of them went into Lake Erie.
The Blade article listed this company:
American Canadian Caribbean Line, based in Rhode Island, runs ships from Chicago through Mackinac Island to Cleveland. Detroit and Toledo do not have cruise ship ports, though Windsor, Ont., receives ships.
Yet their website as listed on the Great Lakes Cruising Coalition is not an updated one. Their new site can be found, here.
I did find one additional possible Itinerary. That's not to say if Toledo did add a Port of call that more might be added. Or that there could be other cruise lines out there that travel thru Lake Erie.
I always thought the Steamboat cruise would be a fantastic one. I've never been on a cruise either Lake or Ocean (unless you count days spent on My father's 18 foot Starcraft).
:-)
3 comments:
The port authority has to spend the federal money or risk losing it, said Jim Mettler, the port authority's vice president for new projects. So why did it take almost losing the money for them to put this plan into motion?
Judy, that was going to be my exact comment - if the money is there or in this case was all this time why wasn't it mentioned before? Especially during Mr. Ford's term. Don't get me wrong I'm all for this to happen especially when the only thing I remember riding in is the Disney transport ferry from the parking lot to the park and back. lol
Kate, I'm not sure why they waited so long, maybe they didn't have the additional funding.
It could be a real positive if they can get some of the cruises to come in.
Yet on the other side of the issue I look at where the federal budget is being cut. So at times I wonder if this "hurry up and use it before we lose it" is the smart way.
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