Adak wants ferry service. In a resolution passed last month, the city council asked the state marine highway system to consider sending a ferry out to the community at least once a year. City manager Layton Lockett drafted the resolution.

“Just as a way to connect Alaska a little bit more," Lockett says. "And to give Adak the ability to utilize the ferry service like other communities can. For freight, or cars, or just for passenger travel.”

Right now, ferry service stops 500 miles to the east, in Unalaska. Freight and cargo bound for Adak has to arrive on the once-a-year barge, or by airplane. Lockett says the problem isn’t a lack of dock space.

“I think we have two of them [laughs], and possibly three.”

The state Department of Transportation is responsible for reviewing the request. Spokesperson Jeremy Woodrow says it’s the first formal request for ferry service out to Adak, and that “the request will be given serious consideration, but that it’s too soon to say how extensive the review process will be before it’s underway."

Lockett, for his part, says he’s happy to hear the state will give it some thought. While he’s hoping for a favorable outcome the first time around, he says he’ll keep lobbying the state if it isn't.