A legal fight over regulation of one parking lot and a barge service could have broader implications.
The North Carolina Court of Appeals will decide in the weeks ahead whether the state Utilities Commission had the right to start regulating a barge and mainland parking lot tied to the Bald Head Island ferry. A dispute over that decision generated an hour of oral arguments Wednesday at the state’s second-highest court.
Political insiders get special treatment all the time. So what is the big deal with the “booze cruise”? Is it fundamentally different? Not really, no.
RALEIGH — A superintendent with the N.C. Ferry Division pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court to federal charges that he ordered workers aboard a division workboat to illegally cut a channel in Currituck Sound near Corolla.
The political buzz this week may have been all about the Black-Norris-Geddings affair, but there’s been another development in the ferryboat-to-nowhere story in the senate leader’s corner of the state.
RALEIGH — A boat purchased by the N.C. Department of Transportation’s Ferry Division for a new ferry route across the shallow Currituck Sound does not meet the requirement that it be able to operate in 18 inches of water. The Division of Marine Fisheries inspected the boat and determined that it might require more than 42 inches of water to operate. While the boat was delivered to the state shipyard in Manns Harbor in August, the operating limitations of the vessel became public only recently. Ferry Division Administrative Officer Charles Utz told Carolina Journal, “The operating depth of the boat is 31 inches.”
RALEIGH — Federal documents indicate that the N.C. Department of Transportation’s Currituck-to-Corolla passenger ferry service that was to start May 1 this year was doomed from the start. A May 2003 feasibility study presented to the General Assembly by Ferry Division Director Jerry Gaskill failed to mention past problems in obtaining a dredging permit at the Corolla end of the route. State and federal agencies have launched investigations into illegal dredging at the site. And while the service was initially supposed to transport up to 40 Currituck students, CJ has learned that there are now only six students involved this year.
RALEIGH — The director of the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Ferry Division and the superintendent of dredge and field maintenance were the focus of a raid on state offices by state and federal law enforcement officials Aug. 26. Superintendent of Dredge and Field Maintenance Bill Moore, who reports directly to Ferry Division Director Jerry Gaskill, has claimed responsibility for illegal dredging that occurred in May in the Currituck Sound near Corolla. 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.
RALEIGH — State and federal law-enforcement officials raided several offices of the NC Department of Transportation’s Ferry Division on Thursday. FBI, EPA, and SBI officials remained in the division headquarters in Morehead City the entire day, and took computers and other records, sources say. The raids were related to a probe of possible illegal dredging performed by Ferry Division employees in the Currituck Sound near Corolla. The activity is associated with the establishment of a passenger service from Corolla to Currituck. State and federal agencies are trying to determine whether the dredging was an accident, and if not, who gave the order.
RALEIGH — Advocates for the new ferry service across the Currituck Sound pitched it as being necessary for transporting schoolchildren, but documents suggest that improving transportation for resort workers was a significant goal. Only 12 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 the service. With NC Senate leader Tem Marc Basnight as the driving force, the General Assembly appropriated $834,000 in 2003 for the project to run a 50-passenger, enclosed-cabin pontoon boat between the Currituck mainland and Corolla on the Outer Banks.
RALEIGH — A new ferry service across the Currituck Sound in northeastern North Carolina is scheduled to begin August 17 even though the boat has not been delivered and an investigation of illegal dredging continues. Documents suggest that state and local officials knew dredging would be required, but proceeded with the project without the proper permits. Currituck officials said the ferry service was necessary because students living on the Currituck section of the Outer Banks would no longer be able to attend Dare County schools because of overcrowding. About 12 students are scheduled to be involved in the ferry service this school year.
