Community meeting on ferry service scheduled for March 31

Ocracoke Access Alliance to discuss the future of ferry service, including tolls & the impact to Ocracoke, at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 31, in the Community Center.

By Connie Leinbach

Members of the Ocracoke Access Alliance are working on a proposal on the future of ferry service, including tolls and the impact to Ocracoke, to present to the North Carolina General Assembly this spring. This will be discussed at a community meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 31, in the Community Center,

In their budget last year, the Senate included a toll on the Hatteras ferry, but the House did not have that in their budget.

Since neither budget has passed, the state has been operating on last year’s budget, but that may change in April when the Legislature reconvenes.

Bob Chestnut, chair of the Ocracoke Civic & Business Association, reported at the March 17 meeting that the OAA is working on a plan to stop this yearly fight regarding tolls.

That plan will include a mechanism to exempt permanent island residents from having to pay the toll.

“If we come up with a reasonable plan for a visitor toll, we could leverage that for adequate funding for the ferries,” he said. “We need to buy more ferries.”

The toll should be designed to meet the ferry replacement plan need to cover the 20% match getting federal funding would require, he said. Toll revenues could go into a fund for that purpose.

There are a lot of issues surrounding tolls and their implementation, he said, but those details aren’t the focus just yet.

“Priority pass issue will be addressed later,” he said. “Right now we want to make sure we have a ferry, not who gets on first.”

Part of the plan the OAA is working on and which was discussed at a community meeting March 31 are as follows:

1. The Ferry Division needs at least $85.5 million a year for operations, but this needs a caveat for rising fuel prices.
2. It needs $69 million to address the backlog in ferry maintenance.
3. Establish an annual pass for all ferries; change name from “commuter pass.”
4. The ferries are a marine highway and thus residents should not have to pay to go home.
5. Take vessel replacement out of the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). This NCDOT program identifies the construction funding and schedule for state transportation projects over a 10-year period. NCDOT updates the STIP approximately every two years.

The OAA is working on how much to recommend to the state legislators for a toll on the Hatteras ferry, but there’s a possibility of doubling the tolls on the Pamlico Sound ferries.

“The Senate has proposed a $20 price on the Hatteras ferry, but others have talked about making it $10 each way,” Chestnut said.

The Senate’s budget also includes doubling the toll on the Ocracoke-Swan Quarter route from the current one-way rate of $15 fee to $30.

The prospect of a toll on the Hatteras ferry, which is free and is the most used in the system, has been dormant since 2016 when the legislature’s spending plan excluded a toll on the Hatteras ferry.

But last spring during budget talks, the N.C. Senate’s budget proposed doubling the rates on the Ocracoke long-route ferries and the passenger ferry and adding tolls to the Hatteras-Ocracoke, Currituck-Knotts Island, and two other routes.