Greenport Village should get a per-vehicle surcharge from North Ferry Co. to help the village mitigate traffic impacts, according to Trustee Doug Roberts. He advocated for the fee during his election campaign in 2015 and continues to press for it.
Roberts last week asked the village board to support a resolution seeking the county’s help with such a surcharge.
The ferry creates traffic problems in the village, Roberts told fellow board members at Thursday’s work session.
He suggested a $1 per vehicle “landing fee.” He also asked the board to name Trustee Mary Bess Phillips and himself as the village’s “lobbyists” on this issue. Phillips is a member of Southold Town’s transportation commission.
“It’s time for someone to look out for the Village of Greenport,” he said. “The next time one of these fare increases comes up, the county can play a great role as mediator.”
North Ferry has a license from Suffolk County to operate its passenger ferry vessels between Greenport and Shelter Island. Its current license is good through 2023. Its fares are established by resolution of the Suffolk County Legislature. The last fare increase was granted in 2014. Roberts believes the ferry company’s next fare increase application will be made sometime soon, because, he said, the rate applications “seem to come every three or four years.”
North Ferry is owned by the Shelter Island Heights Association. Bridg Hunt, the ferry company manager said in a phone interview this week the surcharge proposal “really has no merit unless it’s applied to every business that brings traffic to Greenport.” Other businesses bring traffic into the village, he said. “Singling out one business like that is an idea that has no merit.”
It was not clear that there was majority support for the idea on the village board.
“Village residents use that boat and that surcharge will be a tax on them,” Trustee Julia Robins said. “There are plenty of contractors and other people who go there every day to work — or people from Shelter Island who work here. There is commerce. It’s not just tourists.”
Phillips suggested the mayor speak directly with North Ferry. “We need to talk to work cooperatively instead of butting heads,” she said.
Mayor George Hubbard agrees.
“I’d like to have a direct conversation with them to see if we can work something out,” he said in an interview. “I hope it can be worked out,” Hubbard said. He’d like to see the ferry company pay for the repaving of Wiggins Street, which it uses as for staging. He’d also like to see the ferry company help with the cost of reconfiguring ferry access to alleviate traffic jams. The Suffolk County IDA is giving the village a grant to cover the cost of design, Hubbard said.
“We have a group working together” that includes someone from North Ferry, he said. “I’d like to see us come up with something beneficial to everyone.”
Meanwhile Hubbard will support a resolution to ask the county to weigh in when a fare increase application is filed.
“I don’t think it’s a bad idea,” the mayor said. “We’re going to send a letter to the county executive and Legislator Krupski asking the county to keep us in mind.”
