Editor’s Note: Carolina Journal today begins a three-part series on the failed attempt by Sen. Marc Basnight of Dare County and the N.C. Ferry Division to start ferry service in Currituck County. The project was initiated ostensibly as a means to transport a handful of schoolchildren, but CJ learned that business and economic development interests lurked in the background. What followed was a string of poor decisions, costly mistakes, illegal dredging, and the mysterious death of a Ferry Division official and the resignation of another.
Today’s story shows how the project was poorly conceived, leading to the denial of environmental permits.
RALEIGH — Poor planning, denial of environmental permits, and subtle business and tourism interests have crippled a N.C. Department of Transportation project to establish passenger ferry service across the Currituck Sound.
Plans for the project were initiated soon after the Currituck County Board of Commissioners asked Sen. Marc Basnight in July 2002 to help establish a ferry service to transport about 40 schoolchildren from the Outer Banks to the mainland. Students had been attending Dare County schools. The likely route would be 10 to 12 miles across the shallow Currituck Sound. The 2002 budget bill ordered DOT to do a feasibility study.
Dubious justification
Although proponents of the ferry said schoolchildren needed it for transportation, documents suggest that the service also was intended to transport resort workers and tourists.
Recent developments also diminished the need for school transportation. Only seven to 10 students are expected to ride the ferry this year. And new schools coming into service should eliminate the school-crowding issue that was the main reason given for requesting the ferry.
Currituck County officials initially said the service was necessary because Currituck public-school students on the Outer Banks could no longer attend the closer Dare County public schools. The bus ride for students to the mainland would be too long—for some students the ride was 1 1/2 hours, they said.
Since there are no public schools on the Outer Banks section of Currituck County, Currituck had a longstanding arrangement with Dare County to accept Currituck students. Currituck paid Dare County a per-student tuition expense based on actual costs. The school boards decided to end the arrangement.
Dare County Schools Superintendent Sue Burgess said that because of crowding in elementary schools, the Dare School Board decided in 2002 to phase out Currituck enrollment of elementary schoolchildren from the Dare system.
“The rising tuition was becoming an issue,” Currituck County School Superintendent Mike Warren said. He acknowledged the low number of students involved, but he said 40 students were to have been transported when the project was conceived. “We believe the ferry will provide a quick, easy access and the number of riders will grow as people with schoolchildren move into the Corolla area,” he said.
But crowding in Dare County schools has eased since Currituck officials first requested the ferry service. The county has since opened a new high school and a new elementary school. Burgess acknowledged that her system should have room for Currituck students in 2005, but the decision would be up to both school boards to negotiate, she said.
Currituck County still has no plans to build any schools on the Outer Banks even though a considerable amount of property-tax revenue is generated from that area. Currituck County Tax Assessor Tracy Sample said 66 percent of the county’s property taxes come from the Outer Banks. The homes there are valued from $400,000 to $3 million, which might limit the number of families with school-age children that can afford to live on the Currituck Outer Banks.
If ferry service is ever implemented, a bus also will still be required at each end of the route to transport the students. Thus the new system will replace one bus that now handles the entire trip. Meanwhile, Ferry Division workers have been unable to get the boat to perform at the expected speed, and the entire trip by ferry may actually be as long or longer than the current trip on one bus.
Of the about 4,000 students enrolled in the Currituck system this year, only seven to 10 will be coming from the Outer Banks section of the county, schools spokeswoman Sandy Kinzel said. She said that if the ferry service does become available they would use it only if it makes sense. “We will have to wait and see and make adjustments as necessary, we will have to do what is in the best interests of the kids,” she said.
Basnight failed to respond to questions that CJ sent twice to his office via email and once by telephone.
Workers and tourists wanted
A January 2003 memo from Ferry Division Director Jerry Gaskill to DOT Secretary Lyndo Tippett, in which Gaskill gave an overview of the project, included a business objective. In the memo, Gaskill estimated costs and cited 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 someway 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.”
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.” The resort is situated in northern Dare County next to the Currituck County boundary.
Ives told CJ about his involvement in the meetings. “What I was doing was finding out if it was going to happen. We wanted to see if employees could ride,” he said.
A letter from Currituck County Chamber of Commerce President Willo Winterling to Ferry Division Business Officer Charlie Utz in February 2003 emphasized the movement of workers. “Although this project is being considered as a means to transport school children, it presents a greater opportunity to provide year-round support to our businesses on the Outer Banks and further enhance our growing tourism industry,” Winterling wrote. “Considering the remoteness of the Currituck Outer Banks, Corolla businesses face the challenge of finding employees willing to drive the extra distance to work.”
Currituck County and the Wildlife Resources Commission have strong incentives to improve tourist access to their investments at Currituck Heritage Park, an area that includes the Corolla lighthouse, a restored hunting lodge named the Whalehead Club, and a new Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education operated by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. The only road access is two-lane Highway 12, which is congested during weekends and the peak tourist season.
The Whalehead Club was originally developed as a private hunting and fishing club during the 1920s. The centerpiece of the property is a large home. A 36-slip boat basin was built in the late 1980s, but because of shallow water in the Currituck Sound, few boats can enter the basin. Currituck County acquired the property in 1992 after a private developer went bankrupt. Hoping to attract tourists, the county continues to make improvements to the site. The Corolla lighthouse is adjacent to the site and the entire area is now known as the Currituck Heritage Park.
Some DOT officials knew the ferry project would be difficult. DOT Deputy Secretary David King said that on some days, when a strong northeast wind is blowing, the sound might be too shallow to operate in. But even if there is 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 said a backup bus system was necessary.
Flawed feasibility study
In May 2003 Ferry Division Director Jerry Gaskill presented a project feasibility study to the General Assembly.
In June 2003 the legislature appropriated $834,000 for startup of the ferry service and the first year of operation. The appropriation was based on Gaskill’s study, which said, “the proposed ferry service is feasible, assuming the appropriate permits can be obtained.” But in his study, Gaskill failed to address two previous unsuccessful attempts by Currituck County to obtain a dredging permit for the Corolla location.
In July 1996 Currituck County applied to the Corps of Engineers for authorization to dredge an access channel to the basin, place rocks along the shoreline, and place fill material into wetlands. As standard procedure, the Corps circulated the application to several state and federal agencies for review and comment.
In August 1996 the National Marine Fisheries Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce recommended to the Corps that the dredging permit be denied. “We have determined that this work would result in an unacceptable loss of habitat that supports NMFS trust resources of national importance and recommend that federal authorization of this project not be granted,” Assistant Regional Director Andreas Mager, Jr. wrote.
Also in August the state Division of Coastal Management put a hold on the dredging project until Currituck County prepared an environmental assessment. Those events put the entire request on hold, so in September 1996 Currituck County withdrew the dredging request from the permit application. The other two components were permitted.
In June 2000 Currituck County applied again for a permit to dredge a channel at the same site in Corolla, and again state and federal agencies opposed the project. The EPA also wrote the Corps, saying, “It is the opinion of EPA that this project, as proposed, may result in substantial and unacceptable impacts to aquatic resources of national importance. We request that authorization for this project be denied.” On Oct. 24, 2000, the Corps notified Currituck County that the permit to dredge had been denied.
In July of this year Utz told CJ that obtaining any dredging permits was the responsibility of Currituck County Manager Dan Scanlon, but that Scanlon never told Gaskill or anyone else in the division about previous permits being turned down.
Geographic challenges
The Ferry Division operates 25 vessels over seven routes and employs more than 400 people. The Currituck-to-Corolla ferry service was the first new route established in more than 30 years. Unlike the other services, it is to be a passenger-only service.
With the large-but-shallow Currituck Sound dividing the county, the unique geography is an obstacle to efficient land transportation within the county boundaries. There are no incorporated towns. Currituck can be divided into three distinct segments: the mainland, the Outer Banks, and Knotts Island. The latter is actually a peninsula attached to southeastern Virginia. Travelers can get from Knotts Island to the mainland by driving up through Virginia or by taking a 45-minute ride on the state ferry that docks at the Currituck community. During the school year, two buses transport middle- and high-school students via that ferry route. Knotts Island has its own elementary school.
Vehicle transportation from the mainland to the Outer Banks section is only by crossing the Highway 158 bridge into Dare County and traveling north about 12 miles to get back into Currituck County. The Corolla community is another 14 miles further to the north. Local and state initiatives to build a mid-county bridge have stalled.
Don Carrington is executive editor of Carolina Journal.
Tuesday’s story: The state Ferry Division buys a new pontoon boat for the ferry service across the Currituck Sound, but the customized boat fails sea trials. Division workboats cut and illegal channel in the sound, and federal and state law-enforcement officials, searching for documents, raid division offices and vehicles.