Md. Ferry Stalls Amid Uncertainty About Cost

CRISFIELD, Md. (AP) - It's quiet in Patty Ward's antiques shop across from Crisfield's city dock. The summer tourist season over, virtually all the crab and oyster processing houses have shut down, and there's not much life in the self-proclaimed seafood capital of the world.

So more business would be nice at The Weathered Porch antiques store. But Ward, who also lives in Crisfield, isn't sold on a proposed car ferry between her hometown and Reedville, Va. What would it cost? What if people drove off the ferry and right out of town, not stopping at local shops and restaurants? How would sleepy Crisfield change?

"If it's just going to be a passthrough, it's not an advantage," Ward said of the ferry, which has been discussed for more than 80 years.

After years of study, the Virginia-Maryland ferry is still more of an idea than a proposal - the number of boats, possible ridership and how much the ferry would cost all have yet to be determined. Another feasibility study was completed in August, but then officials in both Crisfield and Northumberland County, Va., expressed doubts about who would pay for the ferry.

In Crisfield, opinions are mixed. Some fear a ferry would bring traffic jams. Others say the town's survival hinges on a ferry, now that the seafood industry has mostly withered away. Only one seafood processor remains on the waterfront - surrounded by condominiums where once crab pickers worked the docks.

"The only thing it can do is bring us more business," said Diane McGonigle, co-owner of Sidestreet Seafood restaurant. Business this year is down 20 percent and a lone couple occupies the bar on this day. "I think it's a good idea."

The restaurant's other owner, Sam Lambrou, is more blunt about how badly he thinks Crisfield needs a ferry.

"You can't even get a cup of coffee after five. It's pretty much a dead town," Lambrou said.

Not all are convinced the ferry is a good idea. At a town planning meeting to discuss yet another ferry proposal, Mayor Percy Purnell questioned businessmen who pitched the ferry.

"I got concerns, guys," Purnell told the ferry committee after being asked to lend the town's name to an environmental study. He noted that just days before, officials in Northumberland County, Va., voted to reject any investment in the ferry.

"I've got a great deal of concern about obligating the city," he said, nothing that Crisfield's entire budget is $3 million a year. "To say we don't have the money to handle this is an understatement."

Growth is no small worry for Purnell. He was elected in June, over a 16-year incumbent, largely because of voter unrest about future waterfront development.

Members of the town council were concerned, too. The ferry would stop on an abandoned dock behind a shuttered seafood processor, now fenced off and rusting. It's unclear how much the city would be on the hook for the ferry and a new terminal.

"I need to have a lot more information than I have," Councilman Kimberly Lawson said. "If we're going to talk about this, what are the costs?"

Similar fears arose in Northumberland County, where county officials voted Sept. 14 not to commit any more local taxes into a ferry, said County Administrator Kenneth Eades.

The Maryland-Virginia Ferry Committee is using an August impact study showing several options for ferry service ranging from $2.5 million to $18 million per vessel, depending what sort of boats are used and how fast the crossing would be.

Ferry supporters aren't giving up. The ferry committee told Crisfield officials it will keep working toward the ferry, and member Fred Lankford urged movement on the project.

"It will be a major contributor to regional economic development," he said.

No one challenged that assertion, but whether the ferry will ever happen is unclear.

"There's some days I do and there's some days that I don't" think the ferry will ever be started, Eades said. He's seen a mention of a ferry proposal from a 1921 church newsletter in his town, so he has doubts about whether the ferry will take off this time.

"This has been talked about for what seems like a century," he said.

In Crisfield, at Mi Pueblito Grill, the restaurant is empty at about 5 p.m. Owner Maria Gilbert-Ruiz urged local officials to move forward on a ferry no matter the cost.

"It will attract more tourists and be good for business," she said.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)