SISTERSVILLE, W.Va. — The Sistersville Ferry across the Ohio River will be back in service later this year. The Sistersville City Council Monday voted unanimously to pay $30,000 which was the last piece of funding needed to buy a new tow boat from a company in Pittsburgh to run the ferry between Sistersville and Fly, Ohio .
“It’s called the ‘Marine Builder’ but when it gets here it will be called the ‘City of Sistersville 3’,” said Mayor Bill Rice.
The funding for the purchase comes from several different sources including an insurance settlement on the old boat which sank when it was placed in the water in May to start the season. The new boat will require a new hitch to tow the barge back and forth across the river.
The Ferry is an attraction for the town. It’s the last ferry between West Virginia and Ohio and one of only five left on the entire length of the Ohio River. But Rice believed they could be better served by using it as a piece of transportation infrastructure as it once was instead of relying on the novelty and history nature of the vessel.
“I used to work at an aluminum plant and it would take me 45 minutes to get home. I would be able to get to that ferry on the Ohio side from Hannibal, Ohio in 10 minutes and if I could catch that ferry on the Ohio side, it takes about five minutes to get across the river,” explained the Mayor.
He believed it would be a time saver for those needing to jump across the river for whatever reason, but didn’t have the desire nor time to drive to a bridge either upstream or downstream.
“If we can muster up the money, I’d like to hire and additional captain and deck hand. That’s really what we need and right now I have a couple I believe would be willing to do it,” he said.
Rice admitted finding ferry boat pilots was the difficult task at this point, which would be necessary for a regular schedule. The barge can haul eight passenger cars or two tractor-trailers at a time. The Mayor hoped to have the new boat in service by the first of September just in time for the West Virginia Oil and Gas Festival.
“That’s going to be my goal is to have it brought back here before the first of September,” he said.