SNOW HILL, Md. - The Pocomoke River is seeing some troubled waters in southern Worcester County.
The riverboat Black-Eyed Susan was originally planned to take visitors to Snow Hill in pleasure cruises up and down the scenic Pocomoke River.
However, the white riverboat is quickly becoming a bottomless hole in the water.
"We're talking about an awful lot of money now, much more than anyone ever anticipated," said Snow Hill Town Manager Rick Pollitt, Jr.
After the town got a jaw-dropping estimate of roughly $600,000 to repair the riverboat and get it certified to carry passengers, the 34 year old Black Eyed Susan has gotten more expensive.
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Mayor Mike Pruitt consulted with shipbuilders and maritime maintenance experts, who estimated that it will cost as much as $130,000 per year just for maintenance on the boat.
Many neighbors in Snow Hill are angry about the rising costs to put the Black-Eyed Susan back into service, and even the most optimistic are curbing their enthusiasm.
"It might be worth looking into doing something less with it if it's going to be costing that kind of cash to maintain," said Joseph DelVecchio of DelVecchio's Bakery downtown. DelVecchio thought using the riverboat as a permanently docked event venue could work.
Snow Hill native Robert Robbins hoped some sort of plan could keep the riverboat in town. "I would hope that they would come up with some kind of solution,". Robbins said "I know it costs money, but it would make a nice attraction."
Some difficult decisions could be made at the next town council meeting.
"Now that we've had the additional cost of the annual maintenance on top of the repairs, I think that's going to be a really cold, harsh, dose of reality, that it may be a price tag higher than our citizens can afford to pay," Pollitt said.
That next town council meeting will be on December 13, and the Black-Eyed Susan is expected to be on the agenda. The public is invited to attend that meeting.