Sag Harbor Takes Step Toward Approving Greenport Ferry Service

Following a mixed public response, and over the objections of Trustee Aidan Corish, the Sag Harbor Village Board on Tuesday, May 10, approved a measure allowing seasonal passenger ferries to dock at Long Wharf.

The decision is a necessary precursor to an application by the Peconic Jitney, a spinoff of the Hampton Jitney, to relaunch seasonal passenger service between the village and Greenport, which it ran as a pilot program in 2012.

Immediately after the 3-1 vote, the board agreed to schedule a hearing on the Jitney’s application for its June 14 meeting, with Corish abstaining.

The board heard a spirited debate. Ruby Jackson, a resident of Peninsula Drive in Noyac, was decidedly opposed to the idea.

“This ferry would be the nail in the coffin of this village,” she said. “We don’t need it. I never heard anyone say, ‘If only there was a direct ferry to Greenport.’”

She said the ferry would bring traffic, take up needed parking spaces, and the people using it would not spend money in the village.

“And the people in their fancy yachts. Do they really want a public ferry discharging passengers who are just walking around?” she asked. “They are not going to benefit the town. They are going to clog us up beyond belief.”

Her comments were rebuked by Anthony Vermandois of Union Street, who noted that, by definition, a wharf is a place for ships and boats to dock and unload passengers and cargo.

“For the first 275 years of Sag Harbor’s existence, it was a working port, not a marina for oligarchs’ yachts,” he said. Using an expletive, he asked why anyone should care what the people on the yachts that typically tie up to the end of the wharf think about the ferry. He added that one of the things that makes Greenport charming is that it retains vestiges of its maritime tradition.

Diane Lewis, a resident of Round Pond Road south of the village, also spoke in favor, saying she had enjoyed several trips on the Peconic Jitney in 2012. She said parking was never an issue. “I’ve lived here 25 years. I never once got into the village and said, ‘Whoops, I can’t park, so I can’t eat, so I can’t shop. I’ll have to go home.’ Never! You wait, you circle, you find a place.”

Lewis added that she had turned 90 years old this year and joked that she has had to give up many activities she enjoyed, such as waterskiing and surfing, but she said she would still enjoy riding on the ferry with family members, something she could not do on her own because she does not own her own yacht. “But if I did have a yacht, I wouldn’t mind a ferry parking next to me,” she added.

Ellen Dioguardi, the president of the Sag Harbor Chamber of Commerce, said her membership overwhelming supported the ferry in a recent survey. “Shockingly, the Chamber of Commerce members feel that bringing more people to Sag Harbor is a good thing,” she said. “That was basically the bottom line.”

Corish raised several objections, with the first being that Long Wharf, which was recently given a $4 million face-lift, is now more of an “urban park” than the gritty waterfront dock that it once was. He said the wharf has become a place where people go to enjoy a few quiet moments on benches looking out over the water. “The idea that we would turn the wharf into a departure lounge is something I have a problem with,” he said.

Furthermore, Corish said the village simply did not have enough information about what allowing a ferry service in the village would mean, citing concerns about safety, lighting, and parking.

“We haven’t done our homework on this,” he said, noting that its environmental review questionnaires were based on outdated information provided from the Jitney’s 2012 pilot program. “I really feel uncomfortable in giving permission for an activity that I don’t understand.”

He did not dismiss the idea totally out of hand, though, suggesting that if the village were serious about providing the kind of alternative transportation proposed by the Jitney, it could reconfigure the transient dock next to Long Wharf and allow a water taxi-type service that would be smaller than the 50-plus passenger vessel the Jitney has proposed using.

Myrna Davis, a Rector Street resident, read a letter from the board of Save Sag Harbor, which also raised numerous concerns about allowing the ferry — from whether passengers would really provide a boost to village businesses to whether ride-shares and taxis would clog the base of the pier or ferry users would take up parking spaces.

If the board were to approve the ferry, Save Sag Harbor urged it to not allow it for any longer than a one-year trial period.

The idea of a one-year trial was echoed by Frank Ahimez, a resident of Madison Street, who said data about the impact of a proposed ferry and the passengers it would bring to and take from the village was lacking. He said the village should hire an independent company to study the impacts of a year’s trial. “What I would propose is we slow down a little bit,” he said. “This is a big step.”

As he has done on and off during his tenure, Mayor Jim Larocca took umbrage at the tone of Save Sag Harbor’s criticism, saying its suggestion that the village was rushing to a decision without all the facts was wrong and full of “pejorative” assertions.

“There is no need to insult the village when you are asking us to accept your point of view,” he said.

Although their application was not formally before the board, both Geoffrey and Andrew Lynch of the Hampton Jitney said ferry service was in keeping with the village’s maritime traditions and should be allowed.

“If the board is in favor of supporting an alternative, sustainable form of public transportation to and from the village that promotes tourism and economic benefits downtown and is consistent with the maritime history of Sag Harbor, then allowing a passenger ferry service on the wharf is absolutely appropriate,” Geoffrey Lynch said.