Chris Bock, the new superintendent of Hatteras Inlet operations expressed concern that the Current's article of October 15th gave a bad impression of his crews. 

"We are all about customer service," he said.

OCBA secretary Connie Leinbach confirmed that no one had responded to her request to put complaints in writing. There were also no comments about ferry personnel on the Current's story. Is it a non-issue, or do people just prefer to grumble among themselves?

"The ferry division can't respond to rumors and innuendo," said Ocracoke resident Justin LeBlanc. 

Ferry division director Ed Goodwin said he was asked in Raleigh if he knew about the article. (Take-away: People in Raleigh read the Current!) He asked the meeting attendees to give him specific incidences. Butch Bryan mentioned that some Hatteras ferry personnel seem to have some problems with the priority stickers. But he hasn't complained because why rock the boat?

Mr. Goodwin suggested that unhappy ferry passengers take cell phone pictures of the problem employees and send them to him. 

"There's no reason for people to be mistreated," he said. "But you can't abuse ferry crews, either." 

If a passenger gets out of hand, Mr. Goodwin expects the ferry crews to take a photo, too. 

Mickey Baker expressed her appreciation of the ferry service and the ferry crews. I'm paraphrasing here, but basically, she understands that the ferry job can be stressful, and we should all have an attitude of gratitude. Who would complain about people doing their jobs and getting us and our visitors here?

"There's 140 employees, and they're not all perfect by any means," Bock said. "But we need more information and specific comments if people are unhappy."

Mr. Bock would also like to see the good stuff about his crews. We all have nice comments to make as well, and we can write those down, too! "Help us get the word out," he said. "We need people to know we haven't gotten any complaints."

The remainder of the two-hour meeting was a discussion of the possibility of passenger-only ferries. Stay tuned to the Current for that fast-breaking news!