BALD HEAD ISLAND — The North Carolina Utilities Commission will hold a public hearing next week to review the BHI Transportation’s petition to change the schedule of the island ferry.
READ MORE: Bald Head Island intervenes in request to decrease ferry frequency, appeals sale decision
The hearing will be held on Aug. 13 at 7 p.m. in Court Room 2 of the Brunswick County Courthouse, 310 Government Center Drive NE.
Earlier this year, the ferry’s current owner BHI Transportation requested to change the hourly schedule of the passenger ferry to a 90-minute schedule in an attempt to improve on-time performance.
The Village of Bald Head Island intervened in the case along with the BHI Club, Bald Head Association, and BHI Academy, claiming a 90-minute schedule provides enough capacity to meet the island’s current and growing demand. The employee ferry would remain on the same schedule.
This change would result in the ferry departing each destination point every 90 minutes rather than 60. Instead of leaving Deep Point Marina at 7 a.m., it will begin at 6 a.m. each day and end at 10:30 p.m. BHIT states it will need to eliminate two runs on average every day to accommodate the changes.
According to BHIT, there is not sufficient time in the current schedule to maintain its goal of punctuality 95% of the time. In 2023, it only reached 76%, and only 66% and 68% in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
The North Carolina Utilities Commission must sign off on the change; it regulates the ferry system, which includes the ferry, tram, barge and parking.
This is not the only case the village is intervening in; it is also appealing the court decision that its right-of-first refusal agreement to purchase the ferry system, which the village has been trying to do for years, is invalid. The Superior Court of Brunswick County found the agreement was void because it was never signed by the utilities commission.
After announcing the sale of the ferry system — which also includes the barge, parking and tram — to a private company in May 2022, owner BHI Transportation gave the Village of Bald Head Island a chance to purchase the transportation service four months later — and the village turned it down.
However, the village has maintained it still has the right to purchase the ferry under the 1999 right-of-first-refusal agreement. Bald Head Island Limited, the ferry system owner, disputed this. It maintained the agreement was never valid and its offer was a “good faith” measure, rather than a necessity.
Additionally, the village requested BHI Transportation’s transfer of the ferry assets to SharpVue Capital be denied by the utilities commission, though it approved it in August 2023. However, BHI did win on one front when the commission decided to regulate the entire ferry system. Previously, only the ferry and tram were regulated.
Tips or comments? Email info@localdailymedia.com.
Want to read more from PCD? Subscribe now and then sign up for our morning newsletter, Wilmington Wire, and get the headlines delivered to your inbox every morning.
