We Need to Talk About Trams
A small group of spectators attended the Occupancy Tax Board's special discussion meeting on Wednesday night. The OT board (chairperson Bob Chestnut, Trudy Austin, Marlene Mathews, Stephanie O'Neal, and David Styron) was joined by county commissioner Tom Pahl, county planner Kris Noble, county manager Bill Rich (by phone; he listened, but didn't contribute to the conversation), and Hyde County Transit director Beverly Paul.
Bob opened the meeting by saying that he and the other board members had gotten mucho feedback about the trams and taxes since the last meeting. He heard basically four things: 1. There needs to be more planning for the tram and its trips around the village. 2. People aren't thrilled with the funding for trams coming from occupancy tax, and there is considerable resistance to an increase in occupancy tax. 3. Some people are skeptical about the passenger ferries. If they don't rbing significantly more people, than the tram is unnecessary.
Of those four concerns, 1 and 2 are the priorities. "If we want a way forward, we need to build a plan that addresses these issues," Bob said. "There is serious opposition to this and the reasons are valid, but I think the reasons could be addressed."
Tom explained that the time constraints (imposed by NCDOT) have let up a bit, and the county now intends to submit their request for OT funds along with all the other requests on April 4th.
"The ferry division and county really want passenger ferries to work, and we assume most people on Ocracoke want it to work," Tom said. "The DOT considers ground transportation to be critical to the passenger ferries' success. The investment from the state and federal money is meant to be about economic development. The ground transportation is critical to DOT thinking and the requirements of the grant money."
The tram system, as planned, will not come close to providing all the ground transport that the passengers walking off the passenger ferries will need (if and when people ride the ferries), so there's got to be a private sector component to getting people around the village (assuming they wont just hoof it.)
In fact, according to Tom, the transportation has to be "primarily private sector. If public transport was handling all visitor traffic, that would be a massive undertaking. We need to find a balance of meeting the capacity."
Tom praised the "entrepreneurial spirit" of Ocracoke residents and he's confident that the private sector support will be there.
"Some think that the private sector alone can handle it, but I don't agree with that," he said. "I think we need the public system and we will support private sector, too."
OT Board members expressed concern that a free tram system that's not adequate for visitor needs would hurt Ocracoke's reputation.
"If the tram can't handle the capacity, what if visitors miss a return ferry?" asked Trudy. "How do we handle the bad reviews on social media?"
"Even if you have the means to get people here, if you don't have infrastructure to handle them, you'll just turn them off and they'll never come back," added David.
The necessary combination of public and private ground transport "may mean that [the tram] shouldn't be free," said Bob. "It will compete with the private sector and free is going to beat pay every time."
Beverly Paul, who is the director of Hyde County Transit, spent much of the meeting explaining the workings of her organization to the board. It's a bit confusing, as the name sounds like it's a county entity, but Hyde County Transit is a non-profit organization that is not funded by Hyde County. She said that Hyde County Transit is one of 88 community transit organizations in North Carolina, and she can draw on their vast knowledge and experience. They all have to meet lots of federal and state guidelines and be ADA-compliant.
Fun facts: Hyde County Transit has 11 board members, appointed by the county board of commissioners. The state sets standards of the types of board members they are required to have (business owners, etc.) There is not an Ocracoke representative on Transit board.
Hyde County Transit has an annual budget of ~$300,000, most of it from grants. 85% of their admin budget is funded by NCDOT, along with 95% of their capital improvements budget. They write a lot of grants, including this one that will purchase the 3 trams for Ocracoke. The grant won't pay for operating costs – as Beverly explained, most operating grants are reserved for transit needs for education or medical transport. Tourism-based services aren't eligible for operating grants. In resort areas, Occupancy Tax funds supports tourism transit.
There'll be an operations manager on Ocracoke who can drive the 17-passenger transit bus (the one that takes the ladies shopping in Avon and Nags Head) and carry visitors to the north end in case they miss their passenger ferry back to Hatteras, or it gets cancelled due to weather.
Beverly also feels that passenger education is an important component of the tram system's success. "We'll have them on the passenger ferry for an hour," she said. "And we can educate them about how to use the tram or other options."
Bob thinks that's too late. "People need to know how they're going to get around over here before they even get to Hatteras. A lot of it has to be advance information," he said.
Beverly and Kris pointed out that the tram issue isn't brand spanking new. Beginning in 2005, Hyde County Transit spent three years working on a public transport concept for Ocracoke, and listened to residents' comments and questions. There were also two public hearings in 2015 on Ocracoke with the ferry division to show how the tram would work with the passenger ferries. The route, as presented, is based on the feedback Beverly and Kris received during those visits.
Tom conceded that those meetings "felt speculative."
"That was about what might be," he said. "Now we have lots of opportunities to change the routes, and have more public meetings about the route of the trams and the funding."
Bob offered a suggestion that the tram be re-routed so that it avoids the Back Road and Loop Road, and just runs up and down Highway 12 from Silver Lake to Howard's Pub and back.
"There may be more room to pull the tram over on Highway 12. There are real issues with the Lighthouse Loop. It would eliminate some variables to do the bare essentials on the route," he said. "And a shorter route would carry more people in the same amount of time."
"We want every single business to have an equal opportunity," Beverly said. (Among the whisperings of the not-allowed-to-speak-audience was the fact that businesses that are off the beaten path always have less traffic. Think of the people who drive through and never venture off the main drag. Also, even with adding the Back Road and Loop Road, some businesses might be by-passed. We're talking about you, Philip Howard.)
Kris suggested that a handout on the tram would show people the closest stop to get to the Lighthouse, Springer's Point, or other points of interest.
Inserting a little editorial comment here: Don't we expect passenger ferry riders to be a bit more adventurous and hardy than the average? If people are willing to step away from their vehicles (a very difficult thing to do for most Americans) and leave all their stuff behind, won't they be the types of people who aren't afraid to walk a little?
Bob also questioned whether passenger ferry riders would need or want a route out to the lifeguard beach. In the NCDOT's feasibility study, 90% of the peeps in line at the Hatteras ferry were daytrippers, but only 33% were heading to the beach.
"Those 33% might be bringing their cars regardless [of a passenger ferry option]," Bob said.
"There are a lot of questions in the community about the whole package – passenger ferries and trams," said Stephanie. "For this to be successful, you've got to have buy-in from the residents of the island. They're not there yet. People don't feel they've been heard." She also suggested that follow-up meetings take place "sooner rather than later while the topic is hot."
"More planning needs to happen," said Bob. "With more detail, people would be more accepting." Bob also mentioned OCBA's position on the trams: "The OCBA letter can be read as 'It's a terrible idea.' or 'It's such a great idea, we need more of it.'"
Before they got into the discussion of where these passenger ferry riders are going to pee (a whole 'nother article is in the works on that issue), the group decided that if and when the OT Board agrees to fund this project, it would be, as Kris put it, "contingent on approval of final implementation plan."
Future funding for the trams (past 2018) is "just at the discussion phase," said Tom. "I hear support for a sales or meal tax. For year two, we'll look for alternatives to the 2% OT tax raise."
As the meeting was wrapping up, the discussion wound back around to whether Ocracoke needs a public transport system at all.
"People come to Ocracoke for what we don't have," Trudy said.
"They don't want Myrtle Beach," added Marlene.
Note: Bob's list of concerns was corrected to match his comment below. Thanks, Bob!
