SNOW HILL, Md. -- At 4:00 p.m., the three bids submitted to purchase the Black Eyed Susan became official. It means now, the town must pick one of the bids and send it to a vote.
The three bidders are Slaughter Creek Marine from Taylor's Island, Henry Wright of Snow Hill, who owns the River House Inn and Bay Coastal Contracting from Berlin. Snow Hill's town manager Rick Pollitt could not share the dollar amounts for each offer.
But, one of those interested parties will walk away with the BES, as long as their bid meets certain criteria.
"They have to first describe what they want to do with it, also we want their plan for removing the boat from Snow Hill, make sure they have the insurance to get it out safely," said Pollitt.
If a bid or all of the bids check-out, Pollitt said the next step will be coming up with recommendations for the town council. Councilmembers will be responsible for the final vote determining the riverboats future.
Once a bid is chosen, Snow Hill's mayor, Michael Pruitt, said the town must create and ordinance.
"The ordinance will specifically say this boat is being sold for this amount of money to bidder number 2," said Pruitt. "It sits on the table for 30 days, then we come back and have a second reading with some public input."
Just to be clear, Pruitt used 'bidder number 2' as a place holder for the eventual ordinance. A bid has not been chosen by the town. But, the town is under a bit of a time crunch, so they would like to come up with that answer by October 10th.
"I would like to find a way to shorten that process because we've got our own interest, we have insurance on the boat as well that's due to expire," said Pollitt.
That insurance expires in early November. The town also has to pay back $300,000 to Worcester County, so Pruitt said it will be important to stay focused until this whole process is complete.
"It hasn't been done yet, we've got to make sure that one of the bids makes it and that the council is okay with it," said Pruitt.
The goal is to finalize the sale by the end of October and before the towns insurance on the riverboat expires.