“Peel away the gleaming new aluminum siding on the main building at the Eagle Harbor ferry maintenance yard and you find the core of historic Bainbridge.The massive building – one of the biggest on the island – is the last remnant of the Hall Brothers shipyard, once among the world’s largest. But how much useful life is left in the century-old building?That’s the question a legislative committee will attempt to answer over the next year and a half. The facility needs major dollars to upgrade it, modernize it and put safety facilities in place, said Rep. Beverly Woods, (R-Poulsbo), one of the committee members.Before spending that money, we want to take a look at the whole facility and see if future maintenance can be done there most cost effectively.The concern, Woods said, arose last summer when the governor’s Blue Ribbon Transportation Committee toured the facility as part of a meeting on Bainbridge. There was a big metal patch on the floor, because employees had brought in heavy equipment that had actually gone through it, Woods said. It’s built on wood pilings, and people are welding on wood floors.It’s not the best facility for our workers.The eight-person study group, which also includes Rep. Phil Rockefeller (D-Bainbridge Island) and Rep. Brock Jackley (D-Manchester), will report to the Legislature in late 2002 for possible legislative action during the regular session in 2003.While some of the specific safety issues that legislators saw last summer have been corrected as part of ongoing maintenance efforts, the old building remains difficult, according to facility manager Harold Hix. Space, he said, is the biggest problem.It looks disorganized, he said of the pipe room, but it’s as much organization as you can have in a cramped space.Space constraints limit the ability to mechanize. Sheet metal is cut with manual shears because there’s not enough room for mechanical ones, he said. Much of the storage is outside.The facility could be made adequate for the next 20 to 50 years, Hix said, but expansion and modernization of the facility will be necessary. Some changes will be needed.Location, locationBefore making those changes, though, the Legislature wants to consider whether Eagle Harbor remains the best location for the facility. The alternative – moving some or part of the operation to the Puget Sound Naval Station in Bremerton, which has downsized and has excess capacity.That concept drew some support from Washington State Ferries officials.Candidly, there is a lot of benefit from being in an industrial area, said Mark Nitchman, WSF maintenance director. It’s absolutely ideal for our needs.Hix was more equivocal, saying that Eagle Harbor has some advantages that can’t be found elsewhere.We don’t just do vessel maintenance, but we also maintain the terminals, he said. And we don’t always bring the vessel here – lots of times we go to it. So one of the key factors that makes Eagle Harbor so attractive is its central location.The geography of the harbor is also a plus, he said, noting that entry to the harbor at Bremerton is much more confined. You’d be adding traffic to an area where there are already concerns, he said.From the workers’ point of view, Hix said, location is a neutral.That’s because the 110-person workforce is scattered throughout the Puget Sound area from Marysville to Tacoma, a reflection of how sought-after the Eagle Harbor jobs are.We only hire the most skilled and experienced workers, because they have to go out on maintenance jobs at night and in bad weather to keep the fleet running, Hix said, estimating the average experience level of the workers at 25-years plus.In the past, some islanders, including Mayor Dwight Sutton, have supported moving the maintenance yard to Bremerton. That would keep the jobs in Kitsap County, they say, while potentially freeing up waterfront property for other marine-related uses, such as a boat haullout facility.Although Hix says relations with the neighbors are mostly smooth, he concedes that there is some tension between the facility and the increasingly non-industrial uses elsewhere on the harbor.We are an industrial facility, and sometimes there is going to be noise at inconvenient times, he said. But that’s what we need to do to keep the ferry system running. “