State officials are expected to announce Thursday that ferry service between Richmond and Swan Island will resume starting Saturday.

The move comes four years after the U.S. Coast Guard halted service when officials said there was no record of the vessel that had been in service for seven years being inspected as a small passenger vessel, and it was deemed “a significant unsafe boating condition and an environmental threat to the port and navigable waterways.”

The state had operated a small ferry connecting the island in the Kennebec River to Richmond for decades.

Since then, various efforts have been made to provide alternative, privately-run service to the island, which is part of the Steve Powell Wildlife Management Area at the head of Merrymeeting Bay, with varied success.

Rep. Sally Cluchey, D-Bowdoinham, and Nate Webb, director of the Wildlife Division at the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, are scheduled to hold a news conference at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Swan Island Pier and Landing in Richmond.

Cluchey has been among those working to restore the ferry service; she introduced LD 976, which established a working group to examine the topic.

The service, which is complimentary, will run weekends through the beginning of September.

The island is home to the former Perkins Township, and is a wildlife management area that attracts migrating waterfowl along the Atlantic Flyway, with 7 miles of trails and 10 campsites with Adirondack lean-to shelters.