Two Plead Guilty in Ferry Dredging

RALEIGH — Two employees of the N. C. Department of Transportation’s Ferry Division pleaded guilty on Monday in federal court in Elizabeth City to knowingly excavating an area of the Currituck Sound without authorization, a violation of federal environmental laws. The employees, Douglas Alan Bateman and Herbert F. O’Neal were part of a crew that in May 2004 used Ferry Division workboats to cut, or “kick,” a channel in the shallow Currituck Sound near Corolla.