Now that the three local ferry lines have removed a $3 fuel surcharge on tickets this year, Mackinac Island City Council is inquiring whether ticket prices can be lowered for this season and have asked for a decision from the companies by Wednesday, May 13, when a special Council meeting is scheduled for 3 p.m.

Council, at a special meeting Tuesday, April 21, met with Chris Shepler of Shepler's Mackinac Island Ferry, Bob Brown of Arnold Transit Company, and Tom Pfeiffelmann of Star Line to discuss a decrease in ticket prices.

The $3 fuel charge was added last year when diesel fuel costs rose to more than $4 a gallon. With prices now around $2, the ferry companies have removed the surcharge, but raised the price of adult tickets $3, to $25 round trip.

"We'll have to dig into our budget to see if it's fiscally possible," said Mr. Shepler, who said nothing can be done at his company until his father, owner Bill Shepler, returns from vacation after Friday, May 1.

"I know now we are not going to make any money, so it's going to be a hard sell to my stockholders to consider lowering ticket prices," said Mr. Pfeiffelmann of Star Line.

Mr. Pfeiffelmann, who was the most vocal of the three representatives, pointed out that on top of high fuel prices, each boat line has had to absorb two minimum wage increases in one year, higher insurance costs, more state business taxes, and mounting federal Homeland Security expenses.

"At this point, we're only asking to break even this year by keeping the ticket rates where they are," he said.

"Cutting our rates only puts us deeper in the hole. I'm taking a 20% cut in pay and another person in our administration is taking a bigger cut. Fuel prices are lower than last year but all three of us ferry lines still have to run trips, and there is still overhead to pay."

Even with the $3 surcharge last year, he said, his company lost money.

"Last year, it cost me $1.50 more to burn 2,600 gallons a day," he said of Star Line's average fuel use per day during the summer, combined for St. Ignace and Mackinaw City departures. "We couldn't make that up, even with the $3 surcharge."

Mr. Pfeiffelmann asked to meet with a committee where he hoped for a "less hostile environment," but Mayor Margaret Doud said a committee meeting couldn't be scheduled until fall. The city, she said, is looking for an answer now to its request that the boat lines consider lowering ticket prices this summer. Rising ticket prices are a concern to the city and the Island business community, she noted.

Committee meetings are open to the public, just as council meetings are.

"It's easy to raise rates, but to lower them, that is much harder, because there are literally thousands of people who bought tickets in advance online already," said Mr. Pfeiffelmann. "The Internet is a big part of our business."

"No island on the Great Lakes is better served than Mackinac Island," said Mr. Brown, in his company's defense that it has been serving the area well. "We quit running January 3, and people began snowmobiling across the ice bridge the next week. Then we began running again just a week after they stopped going over the ice bridge. I think we're running as good a business as anyone can expect."

Councilman Jason St. Onge pointed out that since the 1990s, ferry tickets have doubled.

"I hope you appreciate this isn't just City Council, or the mayor, or city hall asking for this consideration to lower the ticket rates. We are behooved by the city in general," said Mr. St. Onge. "People are coming to me asking me about this. I don't have the luxury to shrug them off because I'm an elected official."

Although Council has merely asked for consideration to lower ferry tickets, it does have the authority to flex some muscle and set its own rates and schedule departures to and from the Island, according to its long-standing charter, said city attorney Tom Evashevski. It even has the authority to create its own public transit operation, if it so chooses, he noted.

Council has never gone so far as to change ticket rates or change daily departure schedules, however, it does collect a ferry franchise fee, which stipulates that the three boat lines pay 2% of their gross passenger ticket revenue to the city, which is used to provide added city services to meet the needs of thousands of visitors, such as police, fire, and utilities, which otherwise would have to be supported by property taxes or another form of user fees.

"We're not trying to be adversarial, but are asking in the spirit of cooperation," Mayor Doud told the three ferry representatives. "This is all for the common good, and that is for the betterment of Mackinac Island."