TAMPA, Fla. -- The Cross Bay Ferry could soon set sail again now that Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn has expressed support for the vessel.

• Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn supports return of CrossBay Ferry
• City Councils to contribute $150,000 in Ferry’s return
• Meeting to discuss further actions takes place July 26

Buckhorn is expected to recommend that the City Council contribute $150,000 toward the effort to bring the ferry back. Both Hillsborough and Pinellas counties as well as St. Pete all agreed to pay that same amount.

The ferry ended its initial run in April 2017. It sold more than 37,000 tickets and had an economic impact of $1.6 million on the region, a fact Buckhorn acknowledged in an interview with Spectrum Bay News 9.

''It opens us, our urban core, for residents of St. Pete to go to Tampa and residents of Tampa to go to St. Pete and I think there's value there,'' he said.

The money Tampa approves for this ferry will not come out of the general fund. Instead, it will come out of a downtown redevelopment fund.  

The City Council is expected to take up this measure at the July 26 meeting.