A new Lummi Island ferry will not be built.

Whatcom County Council members voted 5-2 Tuesday to keep the Whatcom Chief. The county will ask the state to change an $8.15 million grant award to $6 million for renovations to the 20-car Whatcom Chief and ferry docks.

Councilmen Sam Crawford and Ward Nelson were in the minority and supported constructing a new vessel.

Council members who voted against a new ferry expressed concerns about significant increases in operating costs for a new 35-car ferry, which would have been about $800,000 more per year, Councilman Carl Weimer cited information provided by the Public Works Department.

They also said they believed the current ferry, with proper annual maintenance, would remain a sound and safe vessel. A naval architect who has inspected the Whatcom Chief every three years for the better part of the last decade told the council Tuesday that the hull would likely last as long as the ferry was needed, and that many of the boat’s other parts had been upgraded and would work fine.

Despite that, Nelson said he supported a new ferry because he was concerned about safety of passengers, and that the county would be liable if something happened.

County Council members have been trying to decide whether to construct a new ferry for years, and about a year and a half ago the county had been awarded the grant from the state County Road Administration Board. The money would have been paid in annual installments of about $405,000 over 20 years to pay off what would have been an $11.5 million bond for a new ferry.

But Councilwoman Laurie Caskey-Schreiber said the increased operating costs were just too much, and that increasing fuel prices meant ferry fares would likely increase significantly. She said many people were concerned about the ticket price increases approved by the council earlier this month, and some of those people would be priced off the island if a new vessel were constructed.

“In today’s uncertainty regarding our dependence on fuel I am really, really leery of taking this small population of citizens down that road,” she said. “I think it would forever change the community out there.”