White's Ferry Owners Look To Sell After Deal With Landing Site Fails

LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA — The current owners of the historic White's Ferry, Chuck and Stacy Kuhn, are looking to sell the operation to Montgomery County in Maryland. The owners said they made the decision after the owners of the Virginia landing site for the boat rejected their purchase bid.

The ferry originally shut down in December 2020, and the Kuhns purchased the operation in February 2021. They initially planned to reopen service in April 2021, but met several obstacles.

"We are grateful for the significant and good faith efforts of our local and state governments on both sides of the Potomac to help us reopen White’s Ferry. It’s unfathomable that one family is standing in the way of people’s livelihoods," Chuck Kuhn said in a news release. "We have run out of options and will now seek to sell the ferry land and operations to Montgomery County so it can work to invoke eminent domain and acquire the Virginia landing site."

Recently, the Kuhns have been unable to reach an agreement with the owners of Rockland Farm, which hosts the Virginia landing site for the ferry. The ferry operators had already reached agreements with Loudoun and Montgomery County officials.

In January, Montgomery and Loudoun officials submitted a purchase bid to Rockland Farm. The proposal included a total of $1.1 million from both counties, the Kuhns, and former ferry owner Herb Brown. The proposed agreement for the 1.4 acre landing site would have limited use of the site to public use and passage along White’s Ferry Road. It also would have included the possibility of future modifications to facilitate vehicles and ferry operations.

White's Ferry was established in 1786, and was still used by many area residents to travel between Virginia and Maryland before it ceased operations in 2020. The operators estimated the ferry would serve 1,100 users each day if resumed services.

The disagreement between the Kuhns and the owners of Rockland Farm was rooted in concerns about fees. The Kuhns were looking for a flat fee to use the landing site. Rockland Farms preferred a volume-based system.

Libby Devlin is the owner of Rockland Farm.

"The reason that we turned down the $1.1 M combined offer from Loudoun County, Montgomery County, and Mr. Kuhn is that Rockland Farm will not accept a flat fee for its Virginia landing," Devlin told Patch on Monday. "We favor a volume-based fee that varies with the amount of traffic encroaching upon our land and will work with either county to accomplish that."

Kuhn claimed that the farm's proposal of 50 cents per car was unrealistic. The owners also said the farm's proposal would allow them to shut down the ferry at any time.

"We needed an agreement that we could build a business model around," Kuhn said. "Owning landing rights would enable us to understand and manage ferry costs so that we could offer the best product at a price the users can afford. Sadly, one entity — one family — refuses to be part of the solution and is hurting real people and our local communities."

Devlin believes the farm's requests are not unreasonable, and they have worked with another company that would be willing to operate a ferry out of the landing site. However, that company has faced resistance from the owner of the Maryland landing site.

"Rockland Farm has also made an offer to both Montgomery and Loudoun Counties for a permanent easement on our Virginia landing in exchange for a volume-based fee. Our offer is still on the table," Devlin said. "Finally, we are willing to work with Loudoun and Montgomery Counties to explore realigning our landing, acquiring a vessel, putting in a maintenance facility and operating the ferry from Virginia using the independent operator we have found."

For now, the state of White's Ferry and its landing sites is in flux. The Montgomery County Department of Transportation estimated that ferry operations could save $1.7 million each year in travel time for its users.