Jitney Tests New Ferry With Private Charter Landing At Long Wharf In Sag Harbor

Ten days before the Peconic Jitney’s proposal for a passenger ferry service between Sag Harbor and Greenport was scheduled to be aired at a public hearing before the Sag Harbor Village Board, a bright yellow boat that looked a lot like a ferry pulled into Long Wharf on Saturday afternoon.

Bystanders, who posted photos on Facebook, said a group of as many as 70 people, accompanied by a photographer, materialized at the end of the dock to board the boat, which was helped to tie up by two village dockhands. A drone flew overhead as the boat docked, they said.

Although some said passengers boarding the boat called it the ferry’s “maiden voyage,” that was not the case, according to Jim Ryan, the Peconic Jitney’s general manager.

On Tuesday, he said the trip was a charter booked by Ian Bahr, an owner of Claudio’s in Greenport, where the Jitney is keeping its boat, the Mickey Murphy, tied up while it awaits decisions on its proposed service from both village governments.

“We didn’t look to do that trip,” Ryan said. “It was at the request of the owner of Claudio’s.”

Mayor Jim Larocca said it was just another charter to use village docks. “Like everything else associated with the ferry, the reaction was immediate,” he said on Monday.

The mayor said the ferry was used “in the mode of a private charter of the kind we do routinely all summer long” and was charged $2 per foot to tie up at Long Wharf during its brief stay.

But Trustee Aidan Corish, who has been the proposed ferry’s toughest critic, said the use of the ferry boat as a charter did not look good, given the Jitney’s scheduled hearing next week.

“A legitimate private charter by all accounts,” he said, “but considering the context, the optics left a lot to be desired.”

Corish says he is not opposed to the idea of a ferry operating from the village, but he is adamantly opposed to it being allowed to dock at Long Wharf, which the village recently renovated. As part of that project, it created a pedestrian gathering area with benches and an area for fishing right where the Jitney plans to tie up its boat as many as seven times per day.

Corish has cited concerns about increased traffic as cars drop off and pick up passengers at the end of the dock and raised any number of safety concerns, including his fear that someone could fall off the dock when the ferry is arriving after dark.

He has urged the Village Board to work on an alternative that would have the Jitney use a smaller vessel and contribute to upgrades of the transient dock just west of Long Wharf as a permanent base.

Ryan said in retrospect, the decision to run the charter was a good one because it provided “a good opportunity for Mr. Corish, the mayor, and the other village trustees to actually observe the ferry in action.” He said anyone at the dock on Saturday did not see any traffic congestion or crowds milling about because the invited guests used RoveLoop, a short-distance ride app, and other local transportation and walked the final stretch to the end of the pier.

He said the Jitney brought in the drone to document “what Long Wharf looks like when 75 passengers arrive.”

The Village Board, which last month approved a measure allowing commercial ferries to use Long Wharf, will hold a hearing on the Peconic Jitney’s specific application when it meets at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 14, at the Sag Harbor Firehouse on Brick Kiln Road.

Larocca said most people he has spoken to in the village support the ferry, but he said he doubted the board would be able to vote to approve or deny the application next week because Greenport has yet to sign off. “We have to pay close attention to what’s happening in Greenport,” the mayor said. “A unilateral action by either village without the other is meaningless.”

Typically, before holding a hearing, the Village Board would receive a report from the village Harbor Committee, weighing in on whether a use such as a ferry would be consistent with the Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan, a planning document that provides guidelines for and encourages water-dependent uses along the shoreline. But last week, when the committee met, there was nobody from the Jitney to answer its questions, which ranged from concerns about whether the ferry would monopolize available parking to whether it would block part of the channel when it docks.

On Tuesday, Ryan said he had received the Harbor Committee’s questions and would provide answers by the end of the day. It remains to be seen whether the committee will schedule a special meeting to review those answers and complete its referral or wait until its meeting next month.