Jitney Scuttles Plans For Ferry Service This Year

If the Peconic Jitney brings its ferry service back to Sag Harbor and Greenport, it won’t be until next year at the earliest.

Sag Harbor Mayor Jim Larocca confirmed on Tuesday that ferry officials, who planned to present their case to the Village Board next week, had withdrawn their application for this year and reportedly sent the ferry it had leased back to New York from its berth in Greenport.

Peconic Jitney General Manager Jim Ryan, who has been the Jitney’s spokesman throughout the process, could not be reached Wednesday morning for comment.

The passenger ferry service was run as a successful pilot program in 2012, and the Jitney proposed relaunching it on a permanent basis earlier this year. Although the service has obtained the required license from Suffolk County, it has run into roadblocks in both Sag Harbor and Greenport.

In Greenport, officials did not want the ferry to dock at the Mitchell Park Marina, where it had docked in 2012, so the company received permission from Claudio’s restaurant to dock the ferry at the Crabby Jerry’s dock to the east. But village officials have asked that the application be vetted through the planning review process before signing off on it.

A majority of the Sag Harbor Village Board backed a resolution to allow a ferry service at Long Wharf, a prerequisite to the Jitney’s application, but the board postponed a scheduled hearing last month and is now dropping it from the calendar.

With Long Wharf newly renovated and concerns growing about overcrowding in the village, including the lack of available parking, a number of village residents began to voice objections to allowing the Jitney to relaunch the service without a full environmental review.

Stephen J. Kotz