Ferry operations and tram service on Bald Head Island were suspended as of 9 a.m. Friday to allow crews to remove and relocate a ferry that ran aground the previous day.

The Patriot, an 82-foot twin-hulled catamaran, was ferrying 105 passengers when it grounded at the entrance to the south side of the island around 7 a.m. Thursday, according to area media reports.

Passengers were safely moved from the vessel to an island terminal by Coast Guard-Oak Island and TowBoatU.S. crews, according to WECT. No one was injured.

The Wilmington-based television news outlet later reported that officials had, upon inspection, found a steel cable snagged on the ferry’s starboard propellor.

The Coast Guard was investigating.

Ferry operation updates will be provided on Bald Head Island Transportation’s website.

The Village of Bald Head Island’s legal dispute over the sale of the only ferry service system to the island has come to end.

Mayor Peter Quinn announced Tuesday afternoon that the Brunswick County Clerk of Superior Court filed a final judgement earlier that day, bringing “all aspects of the litigation surrounding the transportation system to an end.”

“The Village Council voted to waive its right to seek discretionary appellate review of the court’s ruling on the Right of First Refusal to purchase the transportation system,” Quinn wrote. “The final legal outcome with respect to the transportation system fell short of what the Village had hoped for in undertaking these efforts.”

Quinn’s announcement comes a little more than a month after the North Carolina Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that sided with the owners of the private transportation system.

The three-judge panel ruled that the village does not have the right of first refusal to accept a third-party offer to buy the ferries, trams and barges.

In 2022, Bald Head Island Limited petitioned the N.C. Utilities Commission to approve the sale of the ferry and tram operation to SharpVue Capital, LLC, a Raleigh-based investment company.

The village, Bald Head Island Association and Bald Head Island Club intervened in the proceeding and, in August 2023, the commission approved the sale, subject to certain regulatory conditions meant to protect ferry customers. The village appealed, arguing that the commission’s order did not go far enough in safeguarding customers into the future.

An appellate court in November 2024 rejected that argument.

“Ultimately, the litigation established a clearer definition of the role of the Utilities Commission in regulating service, schedule, and fees,” Quinn wrote. “The Village remains committed to supporting Bald Head Island Limited in providing our community with the best possible transportation system. Toward this end, we will continue to engage with them and their successor.”

According to Quinn’s letter, the village has spent more than $3.8 million since 2020 on outside legal, utilities, bond counsel, expert witness, advisory, and financial consultants.

“Excepting minor miscellaneous expenses, my understanding is that our accounts are current. At the end of the fiscal year, unused monies budgeted for these expenses will be rolled into the Village’s general fund,” Quinn wrote.

Brunswick County Public Utilities has lifted a water conservation alert it enacted earlier this summer.

Recent rainfalls and residents’ efforts to conserve water, “have contributed to a drop to sustainable levels for the County’s water system,” leading the utility to rescind the stage 1 alert in put in place June 26, according to a release.

The alert affected customers in the unincorporated areas of the county, as well as Boiling Spring Lakes, Bolivia, Calabash, Carolina Shores, Caswell Beach, Navassa, Northwest, Sandy Creek, Shallotte, Southport, St. James, Sunset Beach, and Varnamtown.

The recension also applies to customers of Bald Head Island Utilities, Holden Beach Utilities, Oak Island Utilities and Ocean Isle Beach Utilities.

It does not apply to Brunswick Regional – H2GO customers.

“Water conservation notices are not uncommon for this time of year,” the release states. “Water systems typically see higher demands in late spring and throughout summer due to the heat, increased irrigation demands, and the peak tourism season.”

The utility could issue additional notices if drier weather conditions return and customers are encouraged to “use water wisely” and maintain the water irrigation schedule the utility recommends.

The schedule is as follows:

• Odd address numbers: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.
• Even address numbers: Wednesday, Friday, Sunday.
• No irrigation on Mondays.

Customers are also encouraged to irrigate lawns outside of peak demand hours of 5 a.m.-11 a.m. to spread out demands on the system. Irrigation is recommended after nightfall.

Customers with questions may contact Brunswick County Public Utilities at 910.253.2657 or utilityadmin@brunswickcountync.gov.

The North Carolina Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court ruling that sides with the owners of the private transportation system that provides service to and from Bald Head Island.

A three-judge panel ruled the Village of Bald Head Island does not have the right of first refusal to accept a third-party offer to buy the privately owned ferries, trams and barges.

According to the ruling, filed Wednesday, a 1999 arrangement between the ferry owner and the village is null because it was never signed off by the N.C. Utilities Commission.

Appellate Judge Jefferson Griffin stated in the ruling that it is “inconsequential now” as to who was obligated to get the commission’s approval.

“The two parties do not dispute that approval was never obtained,” Griffin wrote.

Judges Valerie Zachery and Julee Flood concurred in the ruling.

In an email message to village property owners late Wednesday, Mayor Peter Quinn said the village is reviewing the decision.

“In the meantime, we continue to engage with BHI Limited and BHI Transportation to support them in their service to our community and work with them in responding to our community’s concerns,” Quinn wrote.

The ruling is the latest in what marks a long-running dispute over the sale of the only ferry service system to the village.

Bald Head Island Limited petitioned the utilities commission in 2022 to approve the sale of the ferry and tram operation to SharpVue Capital, LLC, a Raleigh-based investment company.

The village, Bald Head Island Association and Bald Head Island Club intervened in the proceeding and, in August 2023, the commission approved the sale, subject to certain regulatory conditions meant to protect ferry customers.

The village appealed, arguing that the commission’s order did not go far enough in safeguarding customers into the future.

Last November, a different three-judge panel rejected the village’s request.

It won’t be long before baby fawns are born into the white-tailed deer herd on Bald Head Island.

In the weeks between May and June, the Brunswick County island’s deer population will most certainly rise as pregnant does give birth this spring. By how much? No one can be certain.

The latest white-tailed survey on the island estimates the population at 221 deer. That number has crept up and over the island’s target population, one determined to be “healthy” for white-tail, habitat and people on the island.

On land where deer have no major predators, hunting is not allowed, and the habitat serves up a lush buffet of plants, saplings and grasses. Nature cannot be depended on to manage the herd.

Five years have passed since the last round of contraception was administered to a number of female deer on the island and, as evidenced by the rise in white-tail there, the drug appears to be wearing off. And more years have lapsed since the island last contracted a company to thin the deer population through a process called culling, which is selective hunting.

Now village officials are once again faced with balancing the deer population through a means, and budget, island residents will approve.

Dr. Chris DePerno, a North Carolina State University professor and wildlife biologist whose expertise includes population ecology and management, works with local governments in other states that manage deer populations each year through culling.

He recently met via the web with the village council to discuss their options.

From a management standpoint, DePerno said, 100 to 120 deer seems a reasonable number of white-tail on the island.

“Understand that deer are reproductively efficient,” DePerno said during the council’s April 11 meeting. “They’re good at it and as soon as you’re down to the 120, the next reproductive season, you’re going to be over that. So, I always recommend going a little bit heavier on any culls than you think you might want.”

Even if the decision is made to go with immunocontraception, it will be necessary to cull between 75 and 100 deer early next year to bring down the number of white-tail on the island, village officials say.

Culling was introduced on the island in the early 2000s, when the deer population tipped into the 300s. Annual culls occurred on and off from 2003 on, before a grassroots organization introduced the idea of a nonlethal means of management to the Bald Head Island Conservancy.

One of the roles of the nonprofit, which sponsors and facilitates scientific research, is to oversee and administer deer management projects on the island. The conservancy does not advise the village on which management methods it should choose.

In 2014, the village introduced immunocontraception as a means of managing the island’s deer population, a move that kicked off what became a research study of sorts in testing the efficacy of the federally-approved drug in a wild deer population.

Immunocontraception is labor-intensive and costly management method at about $4,000 a deer.

After a female deer is successfully hit with a tranquilizer dart, she’s given a health check and a sample of her blood is collected before she is injected with the contraception. She’s then tagged and fitted with a tracking collar.

The process takes about an hour from start to finish, “if everything goes according to plan,” Dr. Beth Darrow, chief scientist with the Bald Head Island Conservancy, said in a telephone interview. “They might be able to get maybe three deer in a night if everything goes well and they find their target deer.”

Each female needs two injections, one initial shot and one the following year.

“If everything went according to plan and the deer got both doses, it was 86% effective at preventing pregnancy in the next year,” Darrow said.

That percentage can increase, she said, but the question is how long will the drug last.

“We know basically now that it’s been five years since any deer has had any (injection) and we’ve seen a lot of deer who’ve had it previously with fawns. So, we’re pretty sure that it’s almost completely inactive five years later,” Darrow said.

Does can birth one to two, and in rare cases, three fawns a year. And, they have the potential to have twins.

“If you put those two together, it’s like each mom is more than replacing herself,” Darrow said. “If she survives, then it’s kind of an exponential population growth.”

And Bald Head Island has ideal habitat for deer. The Bald Head Island Club golf course offers acres of nice, healthy grass. There’s the oceanfront dune environment as well as the many “edge” environments throughout the island.

“We have transitions from forest to dunes and forest to marsh and we’ve seen (deer) in all of these areas and using all these areas and eating plants in all these areas,” Darrow said. “So, I do think it’s possible that Bald Head Island can support a higher density of deer in a healthy way than other places might. I think it is very healthy habitat for them.”

That being said, the island also has dozens of acres of sensitive, rare maritime forest that must be protected “from getting mowed down by a hungry deer population,” she said.

The conservancy is in the process of surveying the forest to try and determine whether the deer population is damaging that habitat. Darrow said they hope to conduct a study beginning next year with a forest expert from N.C. State.

In the meantime, village officials are expected to continue discussing deer management at the council’s May 16 meeting.

DePerno told village council members earlier this month that he understands they are “trying to walk the line between doing a cull” and immunocontraception.

“I think you’re trying to make everyone happy and I appreciate that and I’m not being negative,” he said. “I’m just telling you that, in my experience with the communities I’ve worked with, they take on this fight relating to culling and, once they battle it and it becomes a norm within the community, they don’t have these types of discussions. They just remove 40 individuals every year or 50 individuals every year and that helps your budget. It helps your discussions and deer management because it’s consistent.”

Should village officials decide to use immunocontraception to manage the island’s deer population, that would not take place until the next budget, which kicks off July 1, 2026.

A rare type of woodland spanning nearly 200 acres on Bald Head Island was recently added to a national network of protected, old-growth forests.

The 191-acre Bald Head Woods Reserve is now one of four North Carolina forests and the 277th to be added to the Old-Growth Forest Network. There are 39 states included in the network.

“The site is located in the central portion of Bald Head Island and is characterized by its extremely old, large live oak trees that create an intricate maritime forest canopy system,” according to a release from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

The N.C. Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve, a program of the department’s Division of Coastal Management, oversees Bald Head reserve and 9 other coastal reserve sites.

A dedication ceremony took place late last month.

“Showcasing this forest in the Network is an invitation to others to see what is ecologically possible. Less than one percent of old-growth forests remain in the eastern US,” Dan Camacho, Old-Growth Forest Network, said in a release. “These forests offer a glimpse into the ecological potential of our wild, native forest ecosystems. They offer a blueprint for sustaining biodiversity and a weapon for fighting climate change.”

Bald Head Woods Reserve was added to the N.C. Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve in 1993, a move that forever protects maritime forest and interdune swale communities on the land “as a living laboratory,” according to a state Department of Environmental Quality release.

N.C. Coastal Reserve Manager Rebecca Ellin said the program “is fortunate to be entrusted with the protection and preservation of ecologically important habitats on our coast. We appreciate the local partnerships and recent dedication from the Old-Growth Forest Network that support our management of the Reserves and promote stewardship of these natural areas.”

The North Carolina Utilities Commission has approved a new, hybrid schedule for ferry service to and from Bald Head Island.

The commission issued an order last Friday permitting Bald Head Island Transportation Inc. to operate on a 60-minute roundtrip schedule during peak morning and evening hours. Trips between the ferry landing in Southport and the Brunswick County island will run every 45 minutes through the middle of the day.

Bald Head Island Transportation, or BHIT, is “working towards” implementing the new, revised schedule Dec. 1, according to a Village of Bald Head Island news release.

“BHI Transportation understands the importance of on-time performance and has worked with Island organizations to develop a revised ferry schedule to significantly improve on this important metric,” Chad Paul, CEO of the transportation company, said in a statement. “We are committed to making this transition as smooth as possible.”

The hybrid schedule is the result of settlement reached in September between the village, Bald Head Island Club, Bald Head Association, Bald Head Academy and BHIT, which initially applied to the commission to shift to a 90-minute schedule to improve on-time performance.

Business and property owners pushed back on that proposed schedule, arguing the run times would no longer coincide with start and end times of the only school on the island, increase commute times for workers going to and from the island, and force businesses on the island to cut their hours of operation.

The agreement approved by the utilities commission includes that the hybrid schedule operates on a one-year trial period, that the transportation company hold a bi-annual review with the village and other groups listed in the settlement, that the company eliminate the existing mid-day lunch break, and that it develop a reservation system for island employees and contractors on the contractor ferry. That reservation system is expected to roll out by Jan. 31, 2025.

After the trial period ends, the company may make additional changes to the schedule if it results in “significant capacity issues,” according to the release.

“On behalf of the intervenors in this proceeding, we are pleased with the Commission’s order,” Village Mayor Peter Quinn said in a statement. “We want to reiterate our appreciation to BHIT for their willingness to work with us on a solution that works better for system users than the original proposal. We recognize that change can be hard, especially when Bald Head Island has been used to a ferry schedule that has existed for some time. That said, the new schedule will improve the ability of BHIT to have ferries departing and arriving on time. Along with increased usage of the reservation system, these combined actions by BHIT will improve certainty around travel planning.   We want to encourage patience by all as BHIT works to implement the revised schedule.”

Bald Head Island ferry passengers may likely see a change to the ferry schedule later this year, but not one that would bump hourly departures to every 90 minutes.

Groups representing ferry passengers have reached a settlement with Bald Head Island Transportation Inc. to operate on a hybrid schedule, one where ferries would continue 30-minute runs between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m., shift to a 45-minute schedule at midday, and then resume half-hour departures at 6 p.m.

Additional runs would be made on weekends between Memorial Day through Labor Day, peak tourism season on the North Carolina coast.

Related: Bald Head Island ferry users say change would cut capacity

The proposal was submitted to the North Carolina Utilities Commission earlier this month with a request that the commission expedite a decision on the revised schedule. The contractor ferry schedule will not change. A system would be put in place to identify when contractor-class ticketholders are eligible to ride a passenger ferry.

If approved, the schedule would become effective Nov. 1.

The settlement, announced Sept. 13, temporarily cools months of pushback on the private transportation company’s initial revised schedule, which company President Chad Paul said would help improve on-time performance.

Paul explained in a presentation to Village of Bald Head Island Council earlier this year that increased demand for passenger ferry and tram service had resulted in ferry run delays.

In its Feb. 19 application to the utilities commission, the transportation company said its annual ridership between the mainland terminal at Deep Point Marina in Southport to the island has jumped from 570,000 in 2010 to 700,000 by 2019.

Last year, a record 782,000 passengers took the ferry. More than 3 million pounds of baggage were loaded by hand aboard ferries each year since 2021 and, last year, more than 4,500 larger items including bicycles, kayaks, canoes and “large luggage items” were transported, according to the application.

But several people who spoke during a hearing the utilities commission hosted last month in Bolivia argued that shifting to a 90-minute schedule would disrupt ferry runs that coincide with start and end times of the only school on the island, increase commute times for workers going to and from the island, and force businesses on the island to shrink their hours of operation.

The village, Bald Head Island Club, Bald Head Association and Bald Head Academy intervened in the transportation company’s application to the utilities commission.

“While each generally agreed that the proposed schedule would improve on time performance by allowing the ferry more time to onload passengers and luggage, traverse the river, and offload passengers and luggage, each also wanted to understand the impacts of reduced ferry capacity due to fewer ferry runs,” a Sept. 13 village release states.

Those groups, referred to as “intervenors,” acknowledge recent changes, including an electronic ticketing system and luggage limits, have improved on-time performance and reduced the numbers of passengers getting bumped to the next available ferry when a ferry is full, according to the release.

The intervenors and transportation company have agreed to set a one-year trial period in which ferries would operate on the hybrid schedule.

After that year is up, the company “has committed to making additional changes” if there are significant capacity issues caused as a result of the revised schedule, the release states.

Under the agreement, the transportation company will axe its current midday lunch break and establish a reservation system for island employees and contractors who ride the ferry reserved for contractors, the goal of which would be to implement by Jan. 31, 2025. The company and intervenors will also hold biannual reviews of the revised schedule.

Bald Head Island Transportation has agreed to track data on the hybrid schedule, file quarterly reports containing specifics from that data to the utilities commission, and hold public meetings reporting that data.

In his testimony to the utilities commission on the settlement, village Mayor Pro Tem Scott Gardner stated that the intervenors “remain concerned” that the hybrid schedule “may not adequately satisfy demand during certain periods of high use” between April 1 through to the week of Memorial Day weekend, Memorial Day weekend through to Labor Day weekend, and the week after Labor Day weekend through Oct. 31.

The transportation company, with input from the intervenors, will consider whether to ask the utilities commission to approve any additional changes to the schedule as needed, according to information filed with the commission.

The settlement agreement also asks the utilities commission to cancel an expert witness hearing originally scheduled for early November in Raleigh.

Bald Head Island officials have backed off from talks on whether to institute an island-wide curfew for minors.

Public feedback on a draft ordinance that would establish a curfew for teens under 18 has prompted village staff to look into other ways of trying to deter what most agree are the actions of a few.

Village Manager Chris McCall told council members in a meeting last month that staff are researching camera systems and looking into the feasibility of ramping up law enforcement patrols through the summer seasons.

The Brunswick County island has experienced what officials say has been a recurring trend during summers, when an influx of tourists visit the island and the numbers of complaints and 911 calls surge.

The resurgence of unruly behaviors this summer included suspected juveniles throwing balloons and eggs at passing golf carts, the primary form of transportation on an island where passenger cars are prohibited, other than government and contractor vehicles. Last summer, dozens of stop signs throughout the island were ripped up, the handiwork of teens who were never caught.

Property owners and parents opposed to a curfew said during a public hearing in early August that limiting the times during which teens can be out and about unaccompanied by an adult unfairly targets minors, punishes all for the actions of a few, is government overreach and would be bad PR for an island that advertises itself as “family friendly.”

Bald Head’s Public Safety Chief Josh Gibson told Coastal Review in an email response to questions last week that when he increased officer presence in certain areas of the island this summer, law enforcement observed a decrease in incidents.

“Over the past week or two we have seen a downward trend in all incidents as the population is continuing to decrease as the season comes to an end,” he wrote. “We are still looking into best options for increased officer presence during the season (Memorial Day to Labor Day). No plans have been made firm at this point.”

Gibson said that the village is currently looking at installing cameras at eight intersections on the island “as an initial phase rollout.”

The village communicates via social media, posts information on a bulletin board at the Island Package Center and post office, which is directly across from the Old Baldy lighthouse, a high-traffic area on the island, and welcome flyers are available to rental companies and at public buildings.

Bald Head Public Information Carin Faulkner told Coastal Review in an email that she is planning to host a hospitality meeting next month with rental property companies to discuss how those companies communicate with renters about island policies, additional ways in which they may disseminate information, and whether companies are disbursing all pertinent information to guests.

Residents and visitors to the island are required by village ordinance to have a valid driver’s license to drive a golf cart on the island.

Civil citations, which come with a fine, are issued to those caught violating that ordinance.

BOLIVIA – A request to bump Bald Head Island ferry hourly departures to every 90 minutes got a verbal thumbs down from nearly everyone who spoke at a state-hosted public hearing Tuesday night.

The schedule change proposed by the private company, Bald Head Island Transportation Inc., would disrupt ferry runs that coincide with start and end times of the only school on the island, increase commute times for workers going to and from the island, and force businesses on the island to shrink their hours of operation, opponents of the change argued.

A handful of those who spoke at Tuesday’s hearing the North Carolina Utilities Commission held in Brunswick County Courthouse Courtroom 2 said they did, however, favor a hybrid schedule that has been floated around, but not submitted to the commission for consideration.

Elizabeth Stephen, a 30-year Bald Head property owner and 8-year full-time resident, said she was 100% in favor of the hybrid schedule, one that purportedly would begin and end departures to and from the island on the current 30-minute schedule and shift to a 45-minute schedule midday.

Stephen was among roughly 30 people scattered throughout the courtroom where utilities Commissioner Karen Kemerait, who headed the hearing, sat at the front of the room in the seat typically reserved for a judge.

Those who signed up to speak at the hearing were sworn in before taking a seat in the courtroom witness box, where they were allowed to give no more than a 3-minute-long statement and answer questions of commission members and attorneys representing various groups that have intervened in the application review process.

Bald Head resident Jesse Hermann, one of nearly a dozen people to speak at the hearing, said the proposed schedule change would be, simply put, a reduction in capacity.

“The ferries are going to get more crowded as you reduce the schedule,” he said.

The impact to people who frequently travel on and off the island would be akin to shutting down a heavily used commuter thoroughfare to every other hour of the day, a move that would substantially increase the amount of time a person commutes, Hermann argued.

He suggested the ferry service might be able to turn to making procedural changes, including finding more efficient ways to load and unload passengers and their luggage, and add more trams to shuttle passengers and their luggage to and from the ferry landing on the island.

Island property owner Trisha Johnson hopped a flight from her hometown of Athens, Georgia, to speak at the hearing, where she said the proposed “schedule change” is, in her estimation, a capacity reduction.

“The capacity of the ferry is not sufficient and reducing it is not going to solve the problem,” she said.

Nicola Cutler, a teacher at Bald Head Island Academy, a private K-8 school that first opened its doors in 2022, said the proposed schedule was unrealistic because the ferry run times would not align with the start or end of the school day.

“This schedule does not fit into our school schedule whatsoever,” she said.

“Numerous” students ride the ferry to get to and from school, Cutler said, adding that about 20% of those students have parents who work on the island.

The academy, Bald Head Island Academy Foundation Inc., Village of Bald Head Island, Bald Head Island Clu,b and Bald Head Association all intervened in the transportation company’s Feb. 19 application to the utilities commission.

A 90-minute passenger ferry schedule would not provide “enough capacity to meet the island’s current and growing needs,” Village Mayor Peter Quinn wrote in an announcement last week about the public hearing.

In a presentation to the village council earlier this year, Bald Head Island Transportation President Chad Paul said increased demand for passenger ferry and tram service has caused a lapse in on-time performance.

“The issue for the schedule is not just the ferries, it’s the trams,” he said at that February meeting. “We’ve got 350 more homes built since 2010.”

That was the first full year of ferry operations from the mainland terminal at Deep Point Marina in Southport to the island, when annual round-trip ridership was 570,000, according to the company’s application.

That number jumped to 700,000 in 2019. Last year, a record 782,000 passengers took the ferry.

More than 3 million pounds of baggage has been loaded and unloaded by hand aboard ferries each year since 2021 and, last year, more than 4,500 larger items that do not fit in dollies, including bicycles, kayaks, canoes and “large luggage items” were transported, according to the application.

About 85% of ticket buyers since June 2023 have purchased electronic tickets either online or through the transportation company’s mobile app, Paul told council members earlier this year.

While that has helped passengers see which ferries are already sold out and which ones are available for booking, it has not curtailed a “capacity issue” that caught the company off guard, he said.

“It kind of eased up on us and kind of hit us all at once,” when the company started selling passes to some of the larger employers on the island, Paul said.

Employers do not ask their employees to step aside and leave spots open for residents and guests on an otherwise fully ferry, he said. That means that either the customer or an employee gets bumped to the next available ferry.

Paul said there has been a 22% decrease in the number of passengers getting bumped to the next available ferry since the electronic ticketing system began.

“I would think, too that the 45-minute schedule would have even fewer bumped boats,” he said in February.

According to the company’s application, the contractor ferry, which is reserved for contractors who work on the island and may be utilized by employees as well, would continue to depart from the mainland terminal at 5:30 a.m. and from the island at 6 a.m. Monday – Friday during the summer and winter months.

In summers, the first passenger ferry would leave the mainland at 6 a.m. Monday-Friday instead of the current time of 7 a.m. and depart the island at 6:45 a.m. on weekdays. The first passenger ferry from the mainland would depart weekends at 6 a.m. and from the island at 6:30 a.m.

The last passenger ferry would leave the mainland each night at 10:30 p.m. and the island at 11 p.m.

In winters, the last passenger ferry would leave the mainland at 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The last ferry to leave the island would be at 9:45 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Bald Head Island Conservancy Executive Director Chris Shank said the proposed schedule change would easily result in two weeks’ worth of lost worktime in a calendar year for his staff, lengthen their commute times and, in turn, likely increase staff turnover.

“The ferry’s already late,” he said. “A larger ferry would be nice. Having increase capacity during commuting times would be enormous.”

Southport resident Lindsey Urso said the ferry system she uses five times a week to get to the island to work “is an absolute disgrace.”

“What we are seeing recently with our ferry system is a complete failure on all fronts,” she continued. “We have delays that stretch hours and hours on end. These aren’t minor inconveniences. They are disruptions that affect people’s lives. Right now, the system is failing us.”

Island resident Robert Drumheller was the only person who spoke in favor of the proposed schedule change, saying the 5-nautical-mile trip between terminals, the time needed to move passengers and their luggage on and off the ferries and then transport them by tram to homes throughout the island essentially makes it impossible to run under the current schedule.

“I think we need to give this a try,” he said.

If after a year or so the schedule does not prove itself, the transportation company could revisit the matter, Drumheller said.

An expert witness hearing on the schedule change application is set for Nov. 5 in the utilities commission hearing room 2115, Dobbs Building, 430 North Salisbury St., Raleigh. The full schedule may be found online.

Last summer, stop signs were targeted.

This summer, people.

The culprits who spurred an increase in complaints and 911 calls in July on Bald Head Island were not solely teenagers, but village officials are exploring ways in which juveniles — and their parents or guardians — might be held accountable for under-18’ers involved in unruly behavior.

Village officials have drafted an islandwide juvenile curfew, one that has been met with equal parts ire among property owners and longtime visitors who say a curfew unfairly targets teens and support from those who have been the brunt of the antics.

“It’s a safety issue,” Mayor Peter Quinn said during an Aug. 5 public hearing on the proposed curfew. “The idea of people acting up in the month of July is not new. It’s happened year after year. This year they’re throwing water balloons and egging. That’s why we’re looking for an answer.”

Admittedly, he said, they may not find one.

Some at the hearing suggested the village place cameras in areas of the island as a way to help capture the identities of anyone involved in unscrupulous or illegal acts.

Several years ago, state lawmakers raised the age of juvenile jurisdiction for nonviolent crimes to 18.

“We can only take temporary custody (of a juvenile) for very limited circumstances, offenses and situations,” said Bald Head’s Public Safety Chief Josh Gibson.

The closest juvenile detention center is in Wilmington. The time it takes an officer to make the round-trip drive to the Port City and complete the booking process means the officer is off the island for hours, he said.

The process for filing a complaint against a teenager caught, say, throwing water balloons at passersby, entails a time-consuming process through the juvenile services system, one that is backlogged, Gibson said.

A curfew would give officers an option to address some of the problems without going through the courts, he said.

“Once they get to the age of 18, we have options,” he said. The proposed curfew is “a tool in the toolbelt. I think it’s to address activity in general. A curfew will not fix all the problems.”

Officers never caught the underage perpetrators who last summer ripped up nearly 50 stop signs throughout the island, Gibson said. The summer before that, juveniles were graffitiing, he said.

Under the draft ordinance, a curfew would be in effect between 11:30 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. During those times, anyone out under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult.

Village officials explained that the timeframe of the proposed curfew coincides with the ferry schedule to give anyone under 18 who works on the island and lives on the mainland a window of time in order to remain in compliance.

Parents or guardians of kids caught breaking the curfew would be cited a $250 fine.

“It would place the onus on the guardian,” Village Manager Chris McCall said.

Juvenile curfews are not a novel concept in North Carolina. Ahoskie and Kinston are among municipalities here in the state that have adopted curfews.

Opponents of Bald Head’s proposed curfew argue it would unfairly punish all juveniles because of the actions of a few, is bad PR for an island that touts itself as “family friendly,” and is government overreach.

Tom and Pam Schlosser said their 17-year-old son is a hard worker and good steward of the island who, from time to time, stays out past the proposed curfew to hang with friends on the beach or catch a movie at a friend’s house.

“This is a punishment,” Pam Schlosser said. “It is disappointing. This isn’t just adults being hit,” by water balloons. “These are teens. They work hard. This is a time for them to be teens.”

Tom Schlosser told village council members in the public hearing that the proposed curfew is crazy and undemocratic.

“The targeting of kids is crazy,” he said. “The island has always been a family-friendly place and it needs to stay a family-friendly place.”

Paul Brewer said the proposed curfew is “an overstep.”

“I think the adults here are probably more dangerous than the kids,” he said.

A curfew is no more of a punishment than having to wear a seatbelt in a moving car, Betsi Stephen said. Enforcing a juvenile curfew would send a message to parents and kids that public safety is taking bad behavior seriously, she said.

Gregg Thatcher, a self-described dedicated volunteer on the island, submitted a written comment to the village detailing a couple of “troubling incidents” he recently encountered one night. The first involved an inebriated, belligerent woman on the beach.

“The second occurred while I was driving between two beach accesses,” he wrote. “A water balloon was thrown at me while I was on my golf cart on Federal Road, striking me directly in the chest. This act was not only dangerous but also deeply concerning.”

Earlier that evening, another turtle nest monitor was egged, he said.

“If our volunteers and staff do not feel safe, they may no longer be willing to serve, which would be detrimental to our community,” Thatcher wrote. “These assaults must be addressed urgently.”

Councilman Scott Gardner categorized juveniles who live and visit the island into three groups: those who are well behaved and those who do typical, dumb things.

“And then there’s this other very, very small group who are above the law,” he said. “They don’t care. Their parents don’t care. Personally, I’m struggling with do we make things harder on the good to try and solve the problems with the really bad.”

The council did not take the matter to a vote.

A proposal to change the passenger ferry schedule to Bald Head Island will go to a public hearing next week.

Bald Head Island Transportation earlier this year petitioned the North Carolina Utilities Commission to adjust ferry run times from hourly to every 90 minutes in an effort to try to improve on-time performance, according to a Village of Bald Head Island announcement.

That request was intervened by the village, Bald Head Island Club, Bald Head Association, and Bald Head Island Academy, which argue the proposed schedule change would not be sufficient.

“On behalf of all Island property owners, businesses, and organizations, including employees and contractors, we desire improved on-time performance,” Village Mayor Peter Quinn wrote in a message to village property owners. “However, we do not believe a 90-minute passenger ferry schedule provides enough capacity to meet this island’s current and growing needs.”

The village and “other intervenors” have been working with the transportation group to find a solution, “and will continue to do so,” he stated.

The hearing will be held Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Courtroom 2 of the Brunswick County Courthouse, 310 Government Center Drive NE, Bolivia.

Bald Head Island could be the first beach town in the state to have two terminal groins now that the North Carolina General Assembly has amended the law that governs the number of such structures allowed on the state’s coastal shores.

Village officials were quick earlier this week to say that Senate Bill 607 gives them the option to pursue a study on whether a terminal groin would be a viable method of controlling chronic erosion at the east end of the island’s south beach.

Whether the village will move forward with such a study remains to be seen as the bill, which was ratified Friday, awaits Gov. Roy Cooper’s decision to sign, veto or let the bill become law.

Bald Head Island Village Mayor Peter Quinn on Monday sent an email to island property owners explaining why village officials had requested the change in the law, what the change means for the village and next steps.

“Such projects are very expensive and take years,” Quinn wrote. “The Village would not undertake such a study without any basis for a helpful solution. Any structure would be subject to extensive design, environmental study, public input, and state and federal permitting.”

A terminal groin has not been designed, planned or proposed, he wrote, and a multi-year investigation into whether such a structure would keep erosion at bay “will not be rushed.”

A terminal groin, as defined by bill, is one or more structures constructed at the terminus of an island or on the side of an inlet, or where the ocean shoreline converges with Frying Pan Shoals.

“Work to find a viable, financially responsible long-term answer needs to be environmentally sound,” Quinn stated. “Our community has, and hopefully always will, embrace the role of a steward whose actions are in harmony with its natural surroundings. We depend on this mutual idea and agents like the Conservancy to keep us on course.”

He is referring to the Bald Head Island Conservancy, an environmental and educational nonprofit that has publicly opposed the change to the law.

Last month, Bald Head Island Conservancy Executive Director Chris Shank was invited to make a presentation to the village council in which he argued whether a hardened structure would control the movement of sand on the east end of south beach, an area where sand is shifted by storms, which are unpredictable in frequency and strength.

Shank said in an email Monday afternoon that the conservancy was “very disappointed” legislators had passed the law, which also gives the village the option to explore replacing a series of fabric, sand-filled tubes on the west end of south beach with rock structures.

“I don’t believe the Village of BHI leadership or the NC legislators appreciate the monumental shift in approach to managing and protecting NC’s spectacular barrier islands that this legislation could bring,” he wrote. “Our barrier islands have always been one of our state’s most special resources, including our dynamic cape system whose constantly changing sands bring awe and wonder to those who experience them. Further, I doubt that North Carolina citizens want to armor their beaches to protect a limited number of private properties in the short-term in exchange for potentially much longer-term negative impacts to the rest of our beaches. I wish the Conservancy along with our research partners in the coastal physics and engineering fields had been offered the opportunity to discuss the potential consequences of this legislation with those who crafted and voted upon it. Then, at least, this baseline shifting decision would have been given the respect that it deserved for the citizens of Bald Head Island and throughout North Carolina.”

Bald Head Island was the first North Carolina beach community to build a terminal groin after the General Assembly repealed a decades’ old law prohibiting hardened shoreline erosion control structures on North Carolina’s coast.

The 2011 law authorized the Coastal Resources Commission to permit the construction of no more than four terminal groins under a pilot program. Legislators would later add that two additional terminal groins may be permitted. Senate Bill 607, if approved by the governor, will up the allowable number of terminal groins that may be permitted to seven.

Bald Head Island and Ocean Isle Beach are the only towns that have built terminal groins.

Village voters in 2014 overwhelmingly passed an $18 million bond to secure funding to build a 1,300-foot-long terminal groin at the western end of south beach, an area where the widening and deepening of the entrance to the Wilmington Harbor channel exacerbated sand loss.

“Changes in the island’s morphology at Frying Pan Shoals over the past few years have seen dramatic erosion and loss of beach habitat and property on the east end of South Beach,” Quinn stated in his letter to property owners.

The village spends anywhere from $1 million to $2 million about every five years to replace the cloth sand tube groin filed at south beach, he said. That groin field has been there since 1995.

“Replacing the cloth tubes with rock structures would save substantial public funds,” Quinn wrote. “These are not new or disappearing conditions.”

Village Manager Chris McCall described the tubes as, on average, stretching about 300 feet long.

Those tubes have proven to slow the rate of sand flow, he said. The law specifies that the field of rock structures may be groins, including T-head or lollipop groins, or breakwaters. The rock structures cannot be larger than the existing cloth tubes or greater in number.

These structures would have to be approved by the Division of Coastal Management or by variance from the Coastal Resources Commission.

Quinn said the village will dedicate a page on its website to keep property owners updated on its analysis of potential erosion control methods on the beach and when the public can provide input.

Note: Coastal Review will not publish Thursday in observance of Independence Day, a federal holiday.

Storms largely drive sand movement along the Bald Head Island beachfront and sand is being lapped away at the east end, where village officials are considering building a terminal groin to keep erosion at bay.

The unpredictability in the frequency and strength of those storms were among several points of concern raised by the Bald Head Island Conservancy last week over the prospect of additional hardened erosion control structures on the Brunswick County island’s shores.

“So, we’re going to try and control something, which we don’t even know how to predict the future of, and we’re going to try and put something there that says we know what it’s going to do?” Chris Shank, executive director of the Bald Head Island Conservancy, recently asked the village council. “It’s not an easy system to understand. To think, if we put something in the way, can you block sand in that area for a little while? You probably can for a little while. How long will it last? We don’t know that.”

Shank was invited to make a presentation to the village council during its meeting Friday, wrapping up a week when legislation was introduced that would allow the village the option to add a second terminal groin to its shoreline and replace a series of fabric sand tubes with a field of rock structures.

Related: Bald Head Island seeks to change hardened shorelines law

The proposed revision to a statute that lays out the rules for the construction, funding and number of terminal groins permitted on the North Carolina coast bumps the total of allowable hardened erosion control structures from six to seven.

Language added to the law went last week before the Senate judiciary committee, which is expected to take it up for further discussion this week. That language defines a terminal groin as one or more structures constructed at the terminus of an island or on the side of an inlet, or where the ocean shoreline converges with Frying Pan Shoals.

This would give the village the option of building what it describes as a field of rock structures that would replace fabric sand tubes installed along the west end of south beach and a terminal groin at the east end of south beach. The sand tubes have to be replaced every few years.

A state-permitted sandbag revetment installed by a private country club known as The Shoals Club protects it from the encroaching ocean at the east end of the south-facing beach.

Shank played a video of a female sea turtle lumbering under the cover of night along the beach to the sandbag wall. With no place to dig a nest, she eventually turned around and headed back to sea, he said.

“We don’t want something like that to be a long-term measure, especially not in this area,” Shank said, adding that the sandbags are analogy for how rock structures might affect nesting sea turtles.

“We’re sharing the island with our wildlife and, look, I’m not unrealistic about the fact that we have massive erosion in that area. I get that. But we have to be smart about the future.”

Bald Head Island’s beach is federally designated critical sea turtle habitat.

The soft tube groin field rests on the opposite end of the south beach from the 1,300-foot-long terminal groin the village had constructed nearly 10 years ago. The groin, a wall-like structure built perpendicular to the ocean shoreline, is designed to stop the movement of sand.

Bald Head Island was the first to build a terminal groin after the North Carolina General Assembly repealed a 30-year ban on such hardened erosion control structures on the state’s ocean shores.

Bald Head Island Mayor Peter Quinn made clear last week that village officials have not determined whether they want to go the route of having additional hardened structures on the island’s beachfront.

“It needs to be studied before anything is acted on, and this is a step toward making sure that it’s even a possibility before we do anything,” he said. “We’re working with the conservancy. This isn’t something we’re trying to steamroll or anything.”

Shank cautioned council members that, should they decide against building groins at the east end of south beach and the bill amendment passes in Raleigh, the door is opened for a future council to do so.

“I know that there’s a process involved, but it’s complicated,” he said. “By having this legislation passed you have created a pathway for somebody else to walk through and that is a major concern,” he said. “Once that pathway’s open, then what?”

The conservancy is a nonprofit organization that sponsors and facilitates coastal scientific research and offers recreational and educational activities to the public.

Shortly after Shank’s presentation, village council members approved a contract with Marinex Construction of North Carolina Inc. to place more than 1 million cubic yards of sand onto shore at the terminal groin fillet and the east end of south beach. That project is expected to begin later this year.

The village is sending out another round of bids for a project to replace the soft groin tubes on the east end.

The first North Carolina beach community to build a terminal groin after state lawmakers lifted a 30-year ban is looking at the possibility of constructing more hardened erosion-control structures.

The Village of Bald Head Island recently asked its legislative delegates to bump the number of permits the state can issue for terminal groins from six to seven, giving the Brunswick County island government the option of building a groin at the east end of south beach to curb erosion. This is an area where chronic erosion threatens The Shoals Club, a private club that has a state-permitted sandbag revetment installed on the property to help protect it from the encroaching ocean.

The village is also considering replacing a series of fabric sand tubes installed along the west end of south beach with a rock structures.

Proposed changes to the 2011 law were recently handed over to Rep. Charles Miller, Sen. Bill Rabon, both Republicans, and N.C. Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Elizabeth Biser.

Biser and Miller visited the island May 17 after touring the Brunswick County water treatment plant’s reverse osmosis project, according to Sharon Martin, DEQ’s deputy secretary of public affairs.

“Secretary Biser appreciated the opportunity to meet with the local leaders and hear their concerns,” Martin said in an email responding to questions. “The visit to BHI was part of the Brunswick County visits arranged by Representative Miller for that afternoon.”

Language the village has drafted to amend the current law specifies that the number of rock structures that would replace fiber, sand-filled tubes would not exceed the existing number of permitted tubes or surpass the length of the longest existing tube.

“The structure(s) or field of structures may consist of groins,” the draft language states.

It is unclear if and when the drafted language might be introduced in the General Assembly.

Miller’s office did not respond to a phone call and email for comment. Rabon’s office also did not respond to a request for comment.

The existing soft tube groin field rests on the opposite end of south beach from the 1,300-foot-long terminal groin built nearly 10 years ago. The groin, a wall-like structure built perpendicular to the ocean shoreline, is designed to stop the movement of sand.

Bald Head Island Public Information Officer and Deputy Clerk Carin Faulkner explained that the village is being proactive in exploring long-term, more cost-effective shoreline stabilization alternatives at the west end of south beach.

Fiber tubes must be replaced every four or five years, she said.

Bald Head is among a small number of Brunswick beaches that get sand injections from periodic dredging that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers does to maintain the Wilmington Harbor navigation channel.

The sand the village receives is typically not enough to stretch along the entirety of south beach, leaving the east end sand starved.

“We have successfully proven that an engineered beach solution works to stabilize our shoreline,” Bald Head Island Mayor Pro Tem Scott Gardner said in a statement to Coastal Review. “The combination of soft groins, a terminal groin, and a sand management plan have demonstrated that by slowing the movement of sand from our beaches, we can protect our infrastructure and property, and improve habitat for wildlife. Our 2025 plan maintains the quality of shoreline stabilization on the west end of south beach and allow us to begin investigating the possibility of a similar stabilization plan on the east end of south beach.”

The 2025 locally funded coastal storm damage reduction project will place more than 1 million cubic yards of sand onto shore at the terminal groin fillet, the east end of south beach and used to fill new fiber tubes that will replace existing ones in the tube groin field on the west end.

The village has obtained the necessary permits for the project, which is ready to go out for bids, Faulkner said.

Sand for the 2025 project is being tapped from Jay Bird Shoals, a borrow source that is not projected to have enough sand to provide for the future needs of Bald Head’s ocean beach.

The village has thus far unsuccessfully convinced the federal government to allow it to use a portion of Frying Pan Shoals as a sand borrow source.

In 2017, the village applied for a federal permit to mine with a 460-acre area on the western portion of Frying Pan Shoals about a mile off the island’s southeast shoreline.

Frying Pan Shoals is a line of shallow sandbars trailing from the southeastern tip of Bald Head island some 30 miles into the Atlantic Ocean and is an area that has no record of ever being dredged.

This is an area that includes essential fish habitat, a federal designation that describes waters and substrate necessary for fish for spawning, breeding, feeding or growth to maturity.

Bald Head Island is one of only two beach towns authorized to build terminal groins since the General Assembly in 2011 repealed the longstanding ban on the use of hardened erosion-control structures on the state’s beaches. Ocean Isle Beach in Brunswick County built its terminal groin in the winter of 2021-22.

Figure Eight Island in New Hanover County, Holden Beach in Brunswick County and Carteret County ultimately decided against building terminal groins on their shores.

North Topsail Beach in Onslow County is developing a draft environmental impact statement examining potential options, including a hardened structure, for stabilizing its shore at the New River Inlet.

Coastal Review Assistant Editor Jennifer Allen contributed to this report.

Bald Head Island property owners earlier this week approved at the polls two multi-million-dollar bond referendums to back a beachfront erosion control project.

More than 60% of villagers who cast ballots passed the $13.5 million and $4.5 million referendums, according to the unofficial results of Tuesday’s elections.

The bonds will be used to cover the village’s proposed 2025 Coastal Storm Damage Reduction Project, one that includes pumping material from Jay Bird Shoals onto the west end of the terminal groin down through a series of groin tubes, with fill being placed east of Muscadine Wynd and to the east end of the Shoals Club.

After the west end of South Beach is freshly renourished, the village will remove and replace groin tubes in the soft-tube groin field.

The project is being designed to offset chronic and episodic sand losses along South Beach’s western and eastern reaches and maintain the terminal groin fillet, according to a village release.

Bald Head’s village council has scheduled a special meeting March 28 to certify officials results of the March 5 votes.

The village has received a Coastal Area Management Act major permit from the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management and village officials say the next step is to obtain a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers. The village is expected to solicit bids for a dredging contractor by this spring or early summer.

Village officials are also waiting word on whether the Brunswick County island will receive a $4.5 million federal earmark requested for the project.

Additional information about the project may be found here. 

A privately owned ferry system in Brunswick County that each year shuttles more than 350,000 passengers, 90% of which are not residents, between Southport and Bald Head Island is changing hands but will remain privately owned.

Lee Roberts, managing partner of SharpVue Capital, LLC, the Raleigh-based investment company that plans to buy the Bald Head Island Ferry and associated assets, said he anticipates a smooth transition. SharpVue is buying the ferry system from Bald Head Island Limited, LLC., owned by the family of the late George P. Mitchell, who died in 2013 at the age of 94 in Galveston, Texas.

“I hope that we’ll be able to make some operational improvements over time, but I expect for all of the stakeholders, the homeowners, the visitors, the contractors, and the employees, they shouldn’t notice much change,” Roberts told Coastal Review Thursday. He stressed that the ferry has been “privately owned and publicly regulated in the past, it is now and it will be in the future. It’ll continue to be privately owned and publicly regulated.”

Limited announced May 31 plans to sell to SharpVue the ferry system and other assets. The $67.7 million transaction includes $56 million for the ferry and tram system, which is regulated by the North Carolina Utilities Commission, as well as the nonregulated tug and freight barge operation, and Deep Point Parking facility in Southport. The state Utilities Commission must approve the transfer of ownership. 

Mitchell pioneered the hydraulic fracturing technique, or fracking, and was a real estate developer. The Mitchell family purchased in 1983 the Bald head Island’s unsold land, dedicating 200 acres of maritime forest as a preserve, and chose to depend on ferry access and golf carts as the primary modes of transportation.

“The George P. Mitchell family established and grew these infrastructure operations and assets to aid the Island’s development and this agreement transitions them to a reputable and experienced owner and operator with deep ties to North Carolina,” said Limited CEO Chad Paul in a statement regarding the sale to SharpVue. “Our team is committed to ensuring a smooth and seamless transition, for the benefit of islanders, employees, and the greater community.”

Roberts said that SharpVue was delighted to be able to acquire the assets from the estate. 

“Obviously the status quo isn’t really an option. Mr. Mitchell passed away in 2013. You can’t have assets administered indefinitely by the estate of someone who is no longer with us,” he said.

With the sale of the ferry that transports thousands of employees, contractors, visitors and vacationers daily to Bald Head Island, passengers may be wondering if fares will increase. Roberts said the company plan to keep fares unchanged for at least a year.

Round-trip tickets will continue to cost $23 for adults and $12 for ages 3-12 for general passengers. 

In 2021, according to the quarterly report submitted in February to the commission, the ferry served 376,399 total passengers. Of those, 142,850 were general passengers and 6,700 were younger than 12 and admitted at a reduced cost or free. “No frills” day visitors came to 9,915. There were also 31,898 contractor and 118,652 employee riders, 851 annual passes and 2,839 one-way tickets.

Roberts said the current management team and almost all the employees are staying in place, including the CEO and chief operating officer of the transportation company. 

However, the sale has been a contentious issue for some time.

For the past five years, the state-appointed Bald Head Island Transportation Authority has been working with Limited to purchase the regulated ferry and tram system with the intention of the system becoming public. 

Formed in 2017, with support of the village at the time, the authority is made up of residents of the village, Southport, Brunswick County and a member of the North Carolina Board of Transportation. 

Had the authority purchased the ferry and tram as planned, it would have transitioned from being a privately owned transportation system to a publicly owned. The authority would have established rates, fees, charges, routes and schedules for transportation services.  

The authority’s purchase was to be funded with proceeds from revenue bonds, which would be paid “solely from the revenues of the Ferry Transportation System generated through passenger ferry ticket sales, barge and parking charges and other fees. Neither the State of North Carolina nor any local government other than the BHITA has any obligation to make payments on the revenue bonds,” according to the authority.

In December 2020, the authority voted to approve an asset purchase agreement with Limited to acquire the ferry and barge systems and assets for a total $47.75 million. The authority requested the Local Government Commission approve around $56 million in revenue bonds. 

Later that month, State Treasurer Dale R. Folwell asked the owners Limited to gift the entire system to the Village of Bald Head Island or the Bald Head Island Transportation Authority.

Village officials took issue with the “purchase price, transparency, governance, lack of responsiveness to Island concerns,” and other issues raised by various stakeholders, according to the village website, after the authority announced the asset purchase agreement. Village officials announced plans to take steps to independently purchase the system and assets March 19, 2021.

Limited officials provided a letter March 26, 2021, stating that they had no intention of negotiating with the village. 

Voters in the village approved a $54 million bond referendum in November 2021, and “the Village put forward our own proposal to acquire and operate the transportation system,” according to the June 1 response to the sale. The village assumed it would pay same purchase price as the authority of $47.75 million to Limited.

Meanwhile, the sale was tied up in the Local Government Commission for more than year because some members thought the appraisal value was too high.

The authority was denied a spot on the December 2021 agenda at the behest of State Auditor Beth Wood. She wrote in a letter to Folwell, chair of the Local Government Commission, that unanswered questions remained regarding the two appraisals of the ferry system’s assets.

“Until the applications to sell bonds to purchase the assets of Bald Head Island Transportation System is supported by a valuation/appraisal that accurately and reliably sets the value of the assets, no application should be allowed on the Commission agenda at any time,” Wood wrote. 

In a letter, Folwell honored Wood’s request. He explained that one of the many reasons Wood cited was that members of the commission “are bound by law to consider the applications and assessed value of the property subject to taxation and that the amount of borrowing is adequate and not excessive.”

At the end of May, the sale to SharpVue was announced. This came as no surprise to Susan Rabon, chair of the Bald Head Island Transportation Authority. She recently told Coastal Review that Limited had been transparent about their need to close the Mitchell estate. 

“This was no secret,” Rabon said. “The people involved had been telling both sides for a long time, ‘We’ve got to get this done one way or another because we need to close the Mitchell estate.’” She added that Limited had been patient with the process for the authority to secure the ferry and tram system.

This leaves the authority to work out the next steps.

During the June 15 authority board of trustees meeting, Rabon said the authority had been approached by SharpVue to discuss whether there might be a role for the authority in operating the system once SharpVue owns it.

“We told them we would be interested in hearing more and having those discussions, once we knew that the authority had sufficient funding to continue to operate for at least another quarter,” Rabon explained in a follow-up interview. “Bald Head Island Limited has expressed its willingness to provide additional funding to the authority to allow it to have those discussions with Sharpvue because it continues to believe that the best outcome for the users of the ferry system is to have a regional governmental authority as the operator of the system.”

Roberts told Coastal Review that the company would be remiss to not have a dialogue both with the transportation authority and with the village as important stakeholders. 

As for the transition of the ferry system and assets to SharpVue, the next step is closing the deal.

Roberts explained that the paperwork will be broken up into two parts: the nonregulated assets and the state-regulated ferry and tram system. 

Closing on everything but the ferry and tram should take place in the next 60 to 90 days. Closing on the ferry and tram will take place after approval by the Utilities Commission. Roberts said he intends to file that paperwork as soon as possible. 

Bald Head Island Ferry is one of eight ferry boat companies regulated by the North Carolina Utilities Commission and the transfer of ownership is subject to commission approval.

Lucy Edmondson, interim chief counsel for the Utilities Commission, explained in an email response to Coastal Review that the Bald Head Island Ferry is a public utility under North Carolina law and its rates and service are regulated by the state Utilities Commission. 

“While the application for approval of the transfer has not been filed yet. When it is filed, the Public Staff, which is the consumer advocate for ratepayers, will investigate the application for transfer and file testimony that will provide the results of its investigation and make a recommendation as to whether it is in the public interest for the ferry to be transferred,” she said.

The Village of Bald Head Island will be reimbursed $2.9 million for hurricane- and tropical storm-related beach damage expenses.

Hurricane Florence’s storm surge damaged the Village of Bald Head Island’s beach and eroded sand, according to an announcement Tuesday from Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state.

FEMA’s share for this project is more than $2.1 million and the state’s share is more than $730,000. The funds include reimbursing the replacement of more than 215,000 cubic yards of sand on Bald Head Island.

The state now has received more than $109 million for 2018 storm-related beach projects, according to FEMA. In addition to Bald Head Island, Emerald Isle, Holden Beach, Indian Beach, Pine Knoll Shores and Topsail Beach have been approved for beach restoration funding.

FEMA’s Public Assistance is a cost-sharing program that provides grants for state and local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations to reimburse the cost of debris removal, emergency protective measures and permanent repair work.

FEMA reimburses applicants at least 75% of eligible costs, and the remaining 25% is covered by the state. The federal share is paid to the state, when then disperses funds to agencies, governments and approved private nonprofit organizations that incurred costs.

For more information on North Carolina’s recovery from Hurricane Florence, visit Hurricane Florence 2018 and North Carolina Hurricane Florence.

MOREHEAD CITY – After being closed due to hazards related to Hurricane Dorian, the Bald Head Woods Reserve on Bald Head Island in Brunswick County reopened to visitors Monday.

All 10 North Carolina Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve sites are now open after the storm.

“The Division appreciates the assistance of the North Carolina Forest Service, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, The Nature Conservancy, Village of Bald Head Island and volunteers in removing storm-related hazards from the sites,” said Braxton Davis, director of the Division of Coastal Management, in a statement. “We are pleased to announce that all Reserve sites are fully open for public use.”

As with any visit to a natural area, visitors should exercise caution when visiting the Reserve sites and be aware of the risk of potentially hazardous conditions, according to DCM. Visitors should refrain from disturbing the grounded vessels that have been documented on several Reserve sites to protect personal safety and respect vessel owners’ personal property while removal efforts are underway.

The North Carolina Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve protects natural areas for education, research and compatible recreation. Since its creation in 1989, the program has preserved more than 44,000 acres of unique coastal environments at 10 sites along the coast.

Parts of Bald Head Woods Reserve on Bald Head Island are open to visitors for the first time since Hurricane Florence forced closure, the Department of Environmental Quality announced Friday.

The Loop, Middle, and East trails in the southern portion of the reserve, south of Federal Road are now open to visitors. Officials said visitors should continue to exercise caution when visiting the site and be aware of the risk of natural hazards such as biting insects, poisonous plants and regular vegetative debris associated with maritime forest ecosystems.

The Creek Trail in the northern portion of the reserve, north of Federal Road, remained closed to visitors Friday. Updates would be posted on the Coastal Reserve’s website and via its Facebook and Twitter accounts.

The North Carolina Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve Program protect natural areas for education, research and compatible recreation. Since its creation in 1989, the program has preserved more than 42,000 acres of unique coastal environments at 10 sites along the coast.

BALD HEAD ISLAND – Bald Head Island has applied for a federal permit to tap a portion of Frying Pan Shoals, an area that includes fish habitat protected under federal law, as a future sand mine source.

The shoals, a line of shallow sandbars trailing from the southeastern tip of Bald Head Island some 30 miles into the Atlantic Ocean, has no record of ever being dredged, according to the Army Corps of Engineers.

The proposed sand borrow area includes essential fish habitat, a federal designation that describes waters and substrate necessary for fish for spawning, breeding, feeding, or growth to maturity.

The Corps initially ruled dredging the shoals may adversely affect essential habitat or fisheries managed by the South Atlantic or Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils or the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The agency made that determination after the village submitted its environmental impact statement, or EIS, to build a terminal groin on the island’s western shore.

Bald Head Island received a federal permit in November 2014 to build a 1,900-foot-long terminal groin, a wall-like structure built perpendicular to the shore to mitigate shoreline erosion. Under the permit terms, the groin had to be built concurrently with the Corps’ dredging of the Wilmington Harbor Channel.

Ideally, Bald Head Island will continue to use sand pumped from the channel as groin fillet and for beach nourishment, but that all depends on how often the Corps dredges the channel.

At the time the Corps approved the terminal groin permit, the village’s preferred primary sand source for groin fillet maintenance and beach nourishment was Jay Bird Shoals “in cases where the applicant could demonstrate that dredging the federal channel was not practicable,” according to the Corps.

Bald Head Island Village Manager Chris McCall said the last time the village received sand from the federal dredge project was in 2015 when the terminal groin was built.

The Corps was scheduled to dredge the channel this winter, but lacked the funding and instead pushed maintenance dredging back to 2018.

It may be 2020 before the village receives another round of sand injections from channel dredging, McCall said.

The Jay Bird Shoals site provides a limited sand-mining source. The village received a permit in 2010 to remove up to 2 million cubic yards of sand from that site for a private project in which Bald Head pumped about 1.85 million cubic yards of sand.

McCall said officials estimate there to be 1 million cubic yards in the borrow area – not enough to last well into the future of the terminal groin.

“We’re just working through the environmental assessment and permitting process to have everything in line so that if and when we were to need to go to that borrow site it would be permitted versus waiting further down the road,” he said. “For whatever reason, whether it’s because we didn’t get sand from the shipping channel maintenance project or Jay Bird Shoals, if we needed sand, it would be complete. It would be the long-term sand source for the terminal groin project.”

The village is currently dealing with erosion along a section of the shoreline extending from West Beach up to the north entrance of the Bald Head Island Marina.

Sand being dredged from Bald Head Creek is being used to fill that section of shoreline north and south of the marina entrance, McCall said. Sand is also being pumped onto a section of South Beach, McCall said.

“As far as the terminal groin and its performance, what we’re seeing to date is it’s doing a really good job of mitigating the erosion right at the point where we were constantly struggling to maintain,” he said. “When we survey this coming spring and we take that data and the fall survey and look at and analyze it then we’ll have a much better picture in terms of quantifying the performance of the terminal groin.”

That information will also eventually help them determine whether or not the village will need to initiate a second phase of the project, potentially extending the length of the terminal groin.

Costs to dredge material from Frying Pan Shoals will be higher than pumping from Jay Bird Shoals, which is closer to the island.

The village’s proposed 460-acre sand source is on the western portion of Frying Pan Shoals, about a mile off the island’s southeast shoreline.

Under the terms of the permit application, the village proposes to monitor the borrow site immediately after dredging each year for three years, then every other year after that.

The Corps did not authorize Frying Pan Shoals as a borrow site in 2014 because essential fish habitat consultation and National Historic Preservation Act consultation were not completed.

“We will initiate EFH (essential fish habitat) consultation with NMFS (the National Marine Fisheries Service) and no permit will be issued until all requirements of the Magnuson Stevens Act are met,” Ronnie Smith, project manager with the Corps’ Wilmington district, wrote in an email responding to questions. “We will evaluate all concerns and issues as part of the DA (Department of the Army) permit process. At this time, we do not know when a decision will be rendered.”

When Bald Head filed that application last month it kicked off another assessment of the potential effects dredging may have on the shoals.

The Corps has issued a public notice that it will initiate a formal consultation with the fisheries service once the Corps has completed its essential fish habitat assessment.

The Corps’ Wilmington District is accepting written comments on permit application through March 9.