Seventeen months after firing Harold “Buddy” Finch as state ferry director, the state Department of Transportation has promoted a 17-year ferry veteran to succeed him.

Harold B. Thomas of Newport, DOT’s assistant ferry operations director, was promoted to the top job Friday.

“He worked his way up through the ranks, and I am sure he will serve the state’s coastal residents and our visitors with integrity and determination,” Paul Morris, DOT deputy secretary for transit, said in a news release.

Thomas, 44, will be paid $84,587 a year. He joined the DOT Ferry Division in 1994 as a ferry crew member. He has served as assistant director for operations since March 2010, with a salary recently pegged at $56,158. ... [MORE]

View NC 12 & NC Ferry Routes in a larger map

Dare County officials may have moved too quickly when they reopened four Hatteras Island villages to visitors this week.

The Dare County Tourism Board and the Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce say the ferry system and the island infrastructure have not recovered enough from Hurricane Irene damage to handle the load. They asked county leaders to consider blocking any more visitors from getting ferry tickets to come to Hatteras. ... [MORE]

View NC 12 & NC Ferry Routes in a larger map

Three weeks after tourists were evacuated in advance of Hurricane Irene, Dare County will allow visitors to start returning Thursday morning to some parts of storm-battered Hatteras Island – but only via ferry from Swan Quarter or Cedar Island to neighboring Ocracoke Island.

The seven villages of Hatteras Island have been closed because of heavy damage from Hurricane Irene, which severed N.C. 12 in several places north of Rodanthe on August 27.

Dare County and the state Ferry Division have allowed Hatteras residents and property owners to return to the island via emergency ferry service from Stumpy Point, but tourists and other visitors will not be allowed to use this service.

Starting at 7 a.m. Thursday, visitors can return to Avon, Buxton, Frisco and Hatteras Village by catching a ferry to the village of Ocracoke from Swan Quarter or Cedar Island, then driving to the other end of Ocracoke Island for the ferry to Hatteras.

Rodanthe, Waves and Salvo will remain closed to visitors until sometime after Sept. 29.

View NC Ferry Routes in a larger map

The state Department of Transportation Ferry Division has restored some public ferry service along the coast, but ferry access to Ocracoke and Hatteras islands today is limited to emergency responders.

Highway access to the two barrier islands was cut off when Hurricane Irene severed N.C. 12 in a few places on northern Hatteras Island this weekend. DOT opened an emergency ferry route to the island today from a dock at Stumpy Point, on the mainland side of Pamlico Sound.

Fuel trucks, telephone repair crews and DOT road maintenance workers were among the first passengers today for the 15-mile ride from Stumpy Point across Pamlico Sound to the Hatteras Island village of Rodanthe. ... [MORE]

State Auditor Beth A. Wood says the state Ferry Division should reduce employee overtime costs and stop violating its rules on hiring employees' relatives, but her 20-page audit report finds no support for the charges of waste, nepotism and abuse leveled by Harold "Buddy" Finch last year when he was fired after 55 days as the ferry director.

Auditors found 13 ferry employees working alongside or under supervision of family members at the same location or shift. That violates state rules against one relative overseeing the work of another, as well as more strict DOT rules against family members working on the same boat or in the same office.

But the report did not confirm Finch's charges that employees' time cards were approved by relatives, that employees worked excessive overtime to increase their pay, and that ferry managers made questionable purchases. ... [MORE]

Transportation spending changes approved this morning by a House budget subcommittee would cut state ferry appropriations by $10 million a year and require tolls on all ferries; put new restrictions on the state’s ability to accept federal rail grants; and focus more transportation spending on roads and bridges.

“It redirects precious resources to allow for approximately $700 million to be expended [over the next two years] on maintenance and construction projects that will improve safety and relieve congestion across the state,” said Rep. Ric Killian, a Charlotte Republican who is co-chairman of the House Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee.[4/22/11 update: see today's story.]

Some of that money is rerouted from other areas of the budget. Much of it is simply shifted from related funds governed by legislative formulas that already include roads and bridges but give the Department of Transportation more latitude in deciding how to spend it.

A department official said DOT already has shifted its priorities to increase spending for road and bridge upkeep.

“What’s important is the General Assembly’s direction to keep our internal focus, which we have done since 2009, on improving pavements, improving the maintenance condition and reducing the substandard, structurally deficient bridges,” said Jim Trogdon, DOT’s chief operating officer. “It will increase what is dedicated to them.”

If the proposed transportation budget is adopted by the full General Assembly and Gov. Bev Perdue: ... [MORE]

House Republicans say there should be no more free rides on state ferries.

The budget proposal released Tuesday by GOP House leaders would require the state Ferry Division to collect tolls on all ferries that are free now and to charge higher rates on ferries where riders already pay – enough to increase toll collections by $2.5 million next year and $5 million the year after.

The Ferry Division would determine the new rates for individual trips and for multiple-trip passes.  No decisions have been made, but state Department of Transportation officials have said they would consider a $10 toll on North Carolina’s busiest ferry – the 40-minute ride from Hatteras to Ocracoke, now free – and a doubling of the $15 toll collected on the longer Pamlico Sound ferries that link Ocracoke to the mainland at Cedar Island and Swan Quarter.

The budget proposal also would cut jobs elsewhere in DOT and in the Highway Patrol, and it would subject state rail programs to special new layers of legislative oversight.

It would authorize local schools to charge new fees for driver education classes, up to $75 per student, to make up for an $8.7 million cut in state funding. ... [MORE]

Buddy Finch, who said he was fired in retaliation for his effort to root out government waste and abuse, wants a judge to put him back in charge of the NCDOT Ferry Division - and to shield him from political meddling.

In a wrongful termination lawsuit filed this week in Wake Superior Court, Finch asks to be reinstated with back pay. A retired 30-year Coast Guard veteran, he was fired in June after 55 days as state ferry director.

Finch’s attorney, John C. Hunter of Asheville, said the state’s whistleblower law gives judges broad powers to reinstate and protect government workers who suffer illegal retaliation for their efforts to clean up abuses.

“We're asking that they not interfere with his ability to deal with the various problems he found and he reported,” Hunter said. “We're asking the court to keep a continuing role there, if necessary.” ... [MORE]

Sharply increased spending in the state Ferry Division will eat up an extra $11.3 million from the state Highway Fund, according to a new state budget moving toward approval in the legislature today - and the state Department of Transportation will have to cut road maintenance spending by $4.4 million.

The 2010-2011 budget proposed by House and Senate conferees also will:

* Set aside just $46 million to inaugurate the N.C. Mobility Fund proposed by Gov. Bev Perdue, who had sought nearly $100 million. The fund is supposed to pay for big statewide transportation projects, but it will take several years to produce enough money for its first priority, a $150 million widening project on Interstate 85 north of the Yadkin River bridge at Salisbury. ... [MORE]

The House budget proposal released today would start Gov. Bev Perdue’s Mobility Fund, prod the Ferry Division to hike tolls (but not this year), spank the Global TransPark Authority, and cobble together $5.6 million more for highway maintenance than proposed by the Senate.

The transportation section of the House budget would: ... [MORE]