Only one bid to run Sandy Island ferry service
Last Updated on 3/19/2010
Published on 10/20/2009
County and RTA transportation officials are disappointed only one person submitted a bid to run a ferry service to Sandy Island.Officials with Georgetown County, the Georgetown County Board of Education and Coast Rapid Transit Authority met Monday to consider their lone option for providing transportation to Sandy Island.
The bidder's name was not released.
It has been 30 years since Sandy Island residents began asking for safe transportation across the Waccamaw River.
"I would have hoped that we had more responses,'' said County Administrator Sel Hemingway.
He said three people first expressed interest in running the ferry service. When bids were taken, only one person came forward, Hemingway said.
Process continues
The boat of the lone bidder must be inspected and the price worked out before any agreement is reached to run the ferry, according to Coast RTA Director Myers Rollins.
"We want to cross all of our I's and dot all of our T's,'' Rollins said.
Rollins said he wants the process of getting a captain, and boat, to move as quickly as possible.
If an agreement with the lone bidder cannot be worked out, then the process will restart to find interested people, and then receive bids, for someone to pilot the boat.
The school bus boat now carries children and senior citizens to Sandy Island, Rollins said.
Emergency workers and some county employees can also ride on the boat, if needed.
Others need special permission to be allowed to take trips to Sandy Island on the boat.
Special legislation last year in the General Assembly allowed the boat to be used by more than students for transportation to the Island.
Naysayers, however, have said on the Georgetown Times Website that they do not want to subsidize boat trips to Sandy Island.
Money needed
Rollins said state and federal funds would need to be sought to operate the boat. He does not know if there would be money in the Georgetown County School District budget to pay for part of the transportation needs.
"The plan would be one vessel that has multiple runs during the day," Rollins said earlier this fall, when the process began to look for a boat captain.
A small cross near the landing reminds boaters of drowning victim Rishard Pyatt, 18. Pyatt went down with Lou Ann Robinson, 47, and Shaquatia Robinson, 19, on Feb. 18.
A baby and the boat pilot, Tiffany Tucker, survived.
Residents still shudder when talking about the Feb. 18 incident. They avoid the river when it's "boiling," said Sandy Island resident Sarah Deas.
"I don't come out in rough water," she said. "We learn to just do without. I've been doing it all my life.''
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Sandy Island is the jewel atop the crown of Georgetown county. My friends there never ask but give and support us, the people from the other side. Can we give? I can, with pride. Please forgive them for they do not know Lord the rewards that helping our fellow man can bring during these troubled times. Capt'n Sandy Vermont 527-4106 Posted by Capt'n Sandy on 10/21/2009 |
