SNOW HILL, Md. -- On Tuesday night, the town council unanimously approved a $75,000 bid to sell the Black Eyed Susan. The goal is to finalize the sale by the end of October.
The town bought the boat back in 2020 and received a $400,000 loan to do so. $100,000 of that was a grant from the state of Maryland. It was intended to serve as a tourist attraction, bringing people up and down the Pocomoke River.
After a five-year mandatory check by the Coast Guard, it was discovered the riverboat was in dire need of repairs with a price tag of $600,000. Feeling that was far too expensive for taxpayers, Snow Hill leaders began the process to sell the boat in 2022.
A little less than a year later, the town has almost made it to the end of its long and arduous journey to get the boat off its books.
The boat will not be moving far though. Eventually, it will make a very short journey up the Pocomoke River to its new home at a bed and breakfast named the River House Inn.
The inn's owner, Henry Wright, is the man who offered up $75,000 to buy the boat. He plans on turning it into a restaurant and event space behind the River House Inn.
Tuesday nights meeting, much like the boats tenure in town, did not go smoothly. Councilmember Janet Simpson made the initial motion to approve, and said it was neighbors in attendance that sealed the deal.
"The majority of those people said we want to go to the highest bidder, we want to give it to Henry Wright at the River House Inn," said Simpson.
Simpson's motion was followed by a lull and a long deliberation period between town leaders. The big question, is this really the best move for the town?
Diana Walsh, one of the councilmembers, was a bit hesitant. A big point of contention for her is how long the boat will remain docked, exactly where it is now.
Wright will keep the boat in place for the next six to eight months while he gets approval to build a pier behind his inn. While the boat is docked and in Wright's possession, he will pay the town a monthly fee. It will then take an estimated four to six weeks to build the pier before the boat can be moved
The two other offers, the highest of which was $25,000, would have lead to the boat being removed within the 30 days the town requested in its RFP.
"It certainly would make it simpler and it would be quicker," said Walsh.
Ultimately, the unanimous vote came down to select Wright's bid. Snow Hill intends to place the $75,000 in its general fund, saying they will have other funds budgeted to pay back the $300,000 it owes Worcester County.
"Because it will be a fixed amount of money each year for us, we'll know that's coming, our plan is to continue paying the year payment on the boat until our debt to the county is paid off," said Mike Pruitt, the towns mayor.
Worcester County pitched in $300,000 for the purchase. Once the sale becomes official though, Pruitt said it will be a huge weight off Snow Hill's shoulders.
"The sale of the boat, number one, stops all of our bleeding," said Pruitt. "We won't have the electric costs, we won't have the insurance costs, we won't have the potential for some kind of catastrophic thing that happens to steel hull boats sometimes."
Once the boat is in Wright's possession, the town will not have any responsibility.
"We've been advised that if we sell the boat and pass the title, the responsibility surely rests in the lap of the new owners," said Pruitt.