SNOW HILL, Md. -- For months, town officials have been looking for ways to get the riverboat off their books. Now, there is an offer on the table.
Snow Hill still owes Worcester County a good chunk of money for the county's hand in the boats initial purchase. The towns mayor, Mike Pruitt, said over the next couple of weeks they will be working to get that sorted out while finalizing the sale of the boat.
"We have an offer on the table, we want to move forward with that, there's just a couple legal issues that the county staff and our newly appointed lawyers need to workout," said Pruitt.
The roughly $300,000 Snow Hill owes the county is at the top of that list. Pruitt said the town has every intention to pay it back in full.
"We're all on board, 100%, and we want to make sure we pass a clean title to a new owner, but assure the county that we're going to pay back every nickel that we owe them," said Pruitt.
Pruitt did not share who has made the offer or how much the offer is, but did say Snow Hill won't be making all of their money back.
"It's just considerably less than what we paid for," said Pruitt.
It means the days of The Black Eyed Susan sitting idle on the Pocomoke River could be nearing the end. For lifelong Snow Hill neighbors like Barry Laws, the boats impending departure is bittersweet.
"Maybe down the road if something else will work better, a different boat in better condition, smaller maybe, but right now this is not working and needs to go away," said Laws.
Laws, not wanting any of the costs to fall on himself or other Snow Hill taxpayers, did commend Snow Hill's elected officials for trying to clean up this mess.
"I think the current mayor and council are doing their best to do the right thing at this point in time and getting the boat off the river, at least from here and getting us out from underneath of it," said Laws.
Newly elected councilmembers could pause negotiations, but Pruitt said he does not believe that will happen. So barring a last minute back out from the potential buyer, Pruitt said it is the one avenue that could keep the Black Eyed Susan docked in Snow Hill.
