The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission was a partner in an Outer Banks passenger ferry project that is behind schedule and may never operate as planned.
The Department of Transportation’s Ferry Division planned to operate a 50-foot, 50-passenger, enclosed-cabin pontoon boat between the Currituck mainland and Corolla on the Outer Banks. The project stalled in June when state and local environmental officials learned that DOT Ferry Division supervisor Bill Moore used a workboat’s propellers to cut a channel in the shallow sound at Corolla.
The new channel was estimated to be 700 feet in length, 30 feet wide, and 5 to 6 feet deep. DOT has since restored it to the original depth of about two feet. The N.C. Division of Coastal Management, another DNER agency, issued DOT a violation notice for dredging without a permit.
The WRC’s new Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education, adjacent to the illegal dredging area, is scheduled to open in the summer of 2005. The 22,000-square-foot facility will house classrooms and wildlife exhibits. WRC engineering director Gordon Meyers said that he had several conversations with Moore about the project but that he had no advance knowledge that Moore was going to kick a channel. “Bill Moore did not tell me what he was going to do,” he told Carolina Journal.
The area is referred to as Currituck Heritage Park. The 40-acre site along the Currituck Sound includes the new WRC center, the historic Whalehead Club owned by Currituck County, and the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. A private developer that previously owned the property had installed boat docks, but access to the area is limited because of the shallow sound bottom.
The ferry service was scheduled to be in operation by May 1. DOT documents show that dredging at Corolla was necessary and was in the project budget, but neither Currituck County nor DOT had applied for a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In 1996 and 2000 the Corps denied Currituck County dredging permits it had submitted for the same site. A May 2003 feasibility study presented to the General Assembly by Ferry Division Director Jerry Gaskill failed to mention those denials.
Since the ferry service could provide additional access to the new education center, WRC officials supported the project. WRC’s Gordon Meyers originally agreed to build a floating dock for the ferry at the WRC pier, but that idea proved unworkable because of the shallow bottom.
In the early spring of 2004, Meyers agreed to build a dock extension to the Currituck County dock, where the water was a little deeper. He surveyed the sound bottom, drew plans for the dock, applied for a permit from the Division of Coastal Management, and ordered lumber for the construction. He said he had authority to authorize the work and planned to pay for it out of agency operating funds.
On May 26, Meyers sent a check for the permit to the Coastal Management Division. On June 8 he actually applied for the permit. On June 11 Meyers said that permit coordinator Doug Huggett informed him that an incident involving DOT workboats had occurred at the Corolla site where he was planning to extend the dock.
The lumber for the dock was delivered June 14, but when the incident began receiving greater attention, Meyers had the lumber moved to another site. He said his agency has now totally “bailed out of it.”
On May 13, a week before the dredging incident that Moore claimed occurred May 20, WRC members and staff attended a social event at the Whalehead Club. The commission had a meeting the following day in Corolla.
WRC Chairman John Pechman said the timing of the meeting and the dredging incident was coincidental. “Wildlife Resources Commission had nothing to do with DOT’s mess-up,” he said. According to its literature, since its inception in 1947 the WRC “has been dedicated to the wise use, conservation, and management of the state’s fish and wildlife resources.” WRC is an independent state agency administratively housed under the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources.
Last August, state and federal law enforcement officials led by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigation Division and armed with search warrants raided the Ferry Division offices.
Moore, who was superintendent of dredge and field maintenance, is now retired. He reported directly to Gaskill. But both he and Gaskill said the dredging was accidental. Moore said that he and other employees did not “kick a channel” with the boat’s propellers, but that they were marking the channel. Gaskill and Moore were the focus of a raid on state offices by state and federal law enforcement officials Aug. 26.
Returned search warrants indicated officials were looking for information that would explain who gave Moore instructions to dredge.
Currituck County officials said the ferry service was necessary because students living on the Currituck County section of the Outer Banks would no longer be able to attend Dare County schools because of crowding. School officials initially said about 40 students would be involved, but that number now is about 10 students.
They said the bus ride to the mainland, entirely by land, was too long. With State Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight of Dare County as the driving force, the N.C. General Assembly appropriated $834,000 in June 2003 for the project. Annual operating costs are estimated to be more than $400,000. A new Dare County elementary school to be completed this year could eliminate the crowding, but Currituck and Dare school officials would have to establish a new agreement.
DOT Deputy Secretary David King remains guarded about the project. He told CJ that on some days, with a strong northeast wind, the sound could be too shallow to operate in. But even if there were enough water there are other concerns.
“Even if there is plenty water, there are going to be days that it is going to be too rough to have a boxy little ferry with kids in it out in Currituck Sound. It will not be a reliable day-in-and-day-out way to get these kids across. When the weather is fine … it is going to be just peachy, but that’s not going to be all the time, by any stretch of the imagination,” he said. He acknowledged that a backup bus system was necessary.
He also said DOT is considering moving the Corolla landing location. Officials are studying the building of a pier into the sound at an area where there is a better natural channel that would not require dredging. Neither DOT nor Currituck County has applied for a permit to build one.
At least one Outer Banks business also had a strong interest in the project. A Jan. 28, 2003, memo from Gaskill to DOT Secretary Lyndo Tippett gave an overview of the project including cost estimates and dredging requirements. At the conclusion of his memo, Gaskill discussed the involvement of two individuals in the planning process.
“As you are aware we have been having ongoing discussions with Mr. Earl Slick’s representative Allen Ives,” Gaskill wrote. “These discussions have centered on Mr. Slick’s support of this project and the prospect of Mr. Slick’s participation some way in this project financially. At this juncture, although Mr. Slick continues to fully support this route, he is concerned about a perceived conflict of interest with his financial participation. Because Mr. Slick does not want to project any perception problems for both himself and DOT, he had declined to participate at this time.”
Slick is the founder and owner of the Sanderling Inn, which now does business under the name of his company Turnpike Properties. Allen Ives is an employee of Turnpike Properties.
According to information posted on the resort’s web site, “The Sanderling Resort, Spa and Conference Center is the most exclusive address and the only resort located in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and the Currituck Sound, the Sanderling features luxury accommodations and amenities in a quaint and intimate setting.” The resort is located in northern Dare County next to the Currituck County boundary.
An EPA Criminal Investigation Division spokesman told CJ that the investigation is ongoing and that he could not comment on it.
Don Carrington is executive editor of Carolina Journal.