It’s been seven weeks since the borough manager ordered a closure of the town’s nearly 50-year-old barge ramp over structural and safety concerns. Any answer to the community’s needs for a dependable facility for the essential weekly freight barges is a long way off — at a cost of millions of dollars.

Possible options include repairing the existing 140-foot-long steel ramp that floats with the tides; scrapping it and getting a new one built for the same downtown location; creating an expanded fill area next to the Marine Service Center and building a new barge loading and offloading facility and freight staging operation in that crowded space; or moving the barge landing to borough-owned property at the former 6-Mile sawmill site.

Turning the temporary solution of using the old mill dock at the Marine Service Center into a permanent operation really isn’t practical: There’s just not enough room at the center, which already maxes out on space during its busy seasons.

Sadly, there isn’t a cheap permanent option in the bunch. All would cost in the millions, maybe $20 million for an entirely new operation at 6-Mile. There is no estimate for all the steel sheet pile and fill that would be needed to create new land next to the marine center.

And whether the borough spends the money to fix the problem and charges the barge companies that use the facility, or the barge lines invest their own money, either way the costs will add to the expense of running a freight barge into Wrangell — and the expense of shipping goods on the barge.

Costs were a big concern for chamber of commerce members who participated in an online survey that asked where they wanted to see the barge landing: Downtown or out of the road?

Many said moving the freight operations to 6-Mile would add to shipping costs, assuming the freight lines upped their charges to cover the expense of 12-mile round trips into town with each van. Worries over higher freight costs were a common response.

Of course, maybe the state or federal government will come to the rescue with grant money to relieve the borough of the cost. But considering that the state budget deficit is big and could grow bigger, and that the federal government is cutting back on grants of all kinds, the answer most certainly will include borough funds and maybe money from the barge lines, whether direct investment dollars or higher fees charged by the borough.

Creative thinking is good, and no doubt the borough and barge lines will work to find the best solution. But don’t expect a miracle. After almost 50 years, someone is going to have to pay for a rebuilt or new barge landing.