KINGSTON — After starting out calmly, a Thursday evening meeting concerning proposed Washington State Ferry tariff hikes brought Kingston residents’ tempers to a boil, and a volatile atmosphere which sent Washington State Transportation Commission chairman Dick Ford out the door mid-meeting.

Ford left on the heels of a heated argument with an audience member and after several others at the meeting yelled at him to “Go home!” This, more than anything, illustrated how frustrated Kingston ferry users are with recent fare increases and the proposal for another one.

Order was restored when Kingston Ferry Advisory Committee chairman Walt Elliott grabbed the first thing available, an air horn, and sounded it to quiet the audience.

“It’s his determination whether it was right or wrong to leave,” said state Transportation Commissioner Ed Barnes. “It’s probably something I wouldn’t have done. I can definitely see the tension and frustrations here. It’s not just here, in Kingston, though. We’re getting basically the same comments from everyone else. Everybody’s money is short right now.”

The meeting brought a standing-room only crowd to the Kingston Cove Yacht Club, with 62 people attending to comment on the proposed 4 percent increase in ferry fares set to take place May 1. Many residents are frustrated after being promised a 2.5 percent fare hike by the Legislature last year. WSF and the commission are attempting to recover 80 percent of costs through the fare box after Initiative 695 cut transportation funding drastically in 1999.

“At what point does it become cheaper to rent an apartment on the other side than ride the ferry to school every day, or drive 40 miles to Bremerton so I can go to school?” asked Kingston resident and Edmonds Community College student Kyle Freedman. “Something’s wrong when you hit that point.”

Residents asked about the new electronic fare system, and how much it cost (answer: $12.7 million) and whether it would save them money. They were disappointed with the answer WSF director of finance and administration Sam Kuntz provided — no savings for WSF in the near future.

“You may not like the numbers, but this plan has been underway for several years,” he said. It takes several years for any system to start saving money, though he was unclear how much it would save or how long it would take to do so.

“We were asked to come to this meeting to ask questions and get answers,” said Hansville resident Jan Stibre. “And when you tell us you have a cost set up with no projections about how much it will save, it’s like retiring, and I didn’t have an idea about what kind of money I will have to live on.”

“I can hear the frustration here, I’ve been to a number of meetings, and the frustration levels keep getting higher,” said Kingston resident Ron Karzmar, who has been riding the ferries for about 64 years. “I’ve been to a lot of meetings, and I haven’t seen anything happen yet. This system is broken. It’s broken. And you’d better fix it.”

The WSF officials, Ford and Barnes as well as Elliott continued to encourage residents to contact the Legislature, which creates the fare proposals. “The Legislature (is) working on this, but we only have so many people from ferry counties representing us,” Elliott said. “A lot of people live in other districts. Talk to them about contacting their own Legislative representatives.”

“I feel like maybe we should have had a moderator,” said WSF customer information manager Susan Harris-Huether. “But people had the opportunity to say what they felt, and that’s important.”

A court reporter will record all of the tariff meetings, 11 in all, to pass comments along to the transportation commission for review during the final tariff hearing March 22 in Seattle. Visit www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries for more information.