NPS Plans for Passenger Ferries
At a meeting on Thursday at the Ocracoke Community Center, Cape Hatteras National Seashore officials unveiled their plans for accommodating the new NCDOT passenger-only ferries in 2018.
For the next two weeks, the public is invited to comment during this "public scoping" time period. Following the scoping, there will be an EA (Environmental Assessment), on which the public is also welcome to comment. NPS plans to have a decision document in place by June.
The changes are relatively minimal, inexpensive, and Seashore superintendent Dave Hallac expects the EA will be a FONSI (Finding Of No Significant Impact). (Another meeting-goer suggested to me that FONSI needs to enter the Ocracoke vernacular – it could apply to so many situations! Work dramas, parent-teacher conferences, visits to the dentist, even relationships! "Did you figure out who he was texting?" "Yeah, lucky for him, it was a FONSI.") Anyway, the modifications to the NPS docks on Ocracoke will be paid for by the $9 million grant that NCDOT got for the passenger ferry implementation.
The changes are:
1) The location of enhanced parking for passenger ferry vehicles on Hatteras Island.
2) A location for a shade/rain shelter for passenger ferry patrons at the Silver Lake/visitor center area (it will be next to the existing Visitor Center and will look like a typical Park picnic shelter)
3) A possible restroom capacity enhancement at Silver Lake or the park visitor center area (men's, women's, and family/gender neutral)
4) A minor modification to the Silver Lake boat docks to accommodate passenger ferry docking and safe maneuverability. (The docks currently have 17 transient boat slips; this plan reduces that to 10. There were some complaints about that as the boats slips stay pretty full in the summer months, especially on weekends. Alert your sailing friends in Oriental and Lil' Washington – they may have to raft up when their yacht clubs sail over.)
There will also be a turn-out lane for tram pick-up and drop-off, and additional paved sidewalks from the NPS docks to Hwy. 12. (That little section of well-worn path is begging to be paved.)
"From the Park Service's perspective, this is a pilot project," explained Dave Hallac. "It's got what we call a 'safe-to-fail' design. If the the passenger ferry doesn't work out, we don't want to be in the position of having to reconfigure and take out a big project."
He also noted that there's no cost to the Seashore except the planning costs. Jed Dixon, the acting ferry division director, said that the changes to the ferry terminals will cost an estimated $3-400,000, and the shelters (one on Ocracoke, one on Hatteras) will cost $350,000 each.
Dave opened up the meeting to comments and questions.
Justin LeBlanc suggested that the county look into "filling the gaps in the existing sidewalk system so that it's a contiguous system." All agreed that was a great idea, and Clay Willis, who does environmental permitting for NCDOT and worked on the original Ocracoke sidewalks/paving stones project, said he thought that could happen. There were also some obligatory comments about the need for more village restrooms and dredging at Hatteras Inlet, neither of which were under Dave's purview, but he's a good listener. A comment about the possibility of increased trash created by more visitors prompted him to say "We'll augment trash receptacle capacity," which is government-speak for "no worries."
County commissioner Tom Pahl mentioned yet again that this process has been a group effort with government entities. "It's remarkable to see state, federal, and local government entities working together, and all here regularly and getting input from the community," he said. "Pay attention to this. Later we'll want to point to how this can work."
His comment raises a question: Should Ocracoke residents to be grateful to elected officials and public servants for doing their jobs?
Dave mentioned that the Seashore is supportive of the passenger ferry plan because they hope to increase visitation to NPS property on Ocracoke, as well as the village. In 2016, Cape Hatteras National Seashore had its highest visitation in 19 years, yet Ocracoke had the fewest visitors (per ferry stats.) Those eager Seashore visitors need a way to enjoy the spoils of this treasure island, and not be limited to the northern beaches. What's so great about Ocracoke? We have it all – a National Park, plus a village with history and culture and local businesses and a residential community. "Ocracoke is very, very unique," Dave said.*
Finley Austin walks her dog to the NPS docks every morning. She says the duck and goose poop situation there is terrible (her dog doesn't think so; he eats it), and pedestrian passengers will not want to walk through the duck doo and goose goo. Will they get someone to clean up the poop?
"I've been doing this a long time," Dave answered. "And I've never had a question like that before."
The Seashore will be taking public comments online at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/caha_NCDOTpassengerferry until April 13.
Comments can also be mailed to: Superintendent, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, 1401 National Park Dr, Manteo, NC 27954.
*It was his only misstep of the meeting. As superintendents go, Dave earns an A+ in park management, an A++ in responsiveness to the Ocracoke community, and an A+++ in conducting public meetings and keeping them to their time limit. I'm afraid I have to give him a D- in vocabulary, though. It's grammatically impossible to be "very" unique or "really" unique or even "so" unique. You cannot qualify uniqueness! It's like saying something is "bestest." Once it's the best, it can't, by definition, be any better. Once something is "one of a kind" it can't increase its one-of-a-kind-ness. If there's only ONE of something, how much more ONE can it be? Sorry to pick on Dave, because he's NOT the only one who modifies unique when describing Ocracoke. Sigh. Pet peeve exposed. Rant over.
Update: Dave gets an A++++ for his self-deprecating sense of humor. He's learned his lesson about unique.
Correction: The article has been changed to reflect that Tom Pahl did not actually use the word "grateful" at this meeting.
