Is the state closing a popular Hilton Head area boat ramp? Did the county pass the buck?

Boating and fishing in the Lowcountry is a way life and a series of recent county and state bureaucratic decisions may be jeopardizing the future of a popular spot to get a morning on the water started for boaters and kayakers.

Two local elected officials in Columbia are not happy about the changes and are now investigating what’s happening.

South Carolina State Parks says it will shut down a popular Hunting Island boat access called Russ Point Landing next month in a move that has both surprised residents and grabbed the attention of a state Sen. Tom Davis and state Rep. Shannon Erickson. For its part, the state says erosion is eating away the road and making it a public safety hazard.

Beaufort County once maintained the boat launch but gave it up two years ago after an review of all of its public boating facilities. Both moves — the county’s decision to give up control of treasured access to water and the state’s subsequent decision to close it — have residents scratching their heads and hoping the state will reverse course.

To some, it sounds like everyone is giving up too easily rather than trying to solve the threats to the road and saving the important public access to the water.

Sen. Davis joined the social media conversation on Monday afternoon, when he promised he would go to work “to figure what’s necessary to keep Russ Point Landing open.” “Hunting Island State Park generates millions of dollars annually for the state,” Davis said, “and if infrastructure improvements are needed at the landing — and they are — then these revenues should be tapped.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Erickson said she toured the site Monday with the Hunting Island State Park director. The most pressing issue, she said, is a “washout” of the road closest to the boat landing, which is a safety hazard. The erosion in that area is severe and will eventually breach the road and cut off the landing, she said. Erickson said she would be checking with the state Department of Health and Environmental Control’s Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management on possible solutions.

“More specifically — what can legally be permitted and employed to keep access available and restore this road,” Erickson said.

This loss is upsetting to local boaters

Mike Sutton, a boater who grew up on Fripp Island who now serves on the Beaufort Historic District Review Board, also turned to social media to alert the public to the situation and urge people to contact the state.

“There’s been local fisherman who have been oystering off here for 50 years,” Sutton said.

A cardinal rule of living on an island, says Sutton, is never give away public access to the water. “Just come here and fix it,” he said of the road to the ramp, “because it’s not that bad.” It is his hope that the people in charge with the state and county will step forward and have a dialogue, “rather than just closing it.”

Russ Point is a key entry point for thousands of boaters

The Russ Point Landing boat launch has been a popular place to put in kayaks and fishing boats for decades and it’s used by thousands. Commercial fishermen use it, too, Sutton says. Located on the Fripp Inlet, the barrier island boat launch is the area’s closest to the ocean, providing an easy entry point between Fripp and Hunting islands and backside access to a chain of barrier islands — including Prichards, St. Phillips and Bay Point.

Recently, the state put up a sign informing the public that the boat landing would be closing April 1 because of deteriorating conditions of the road leading to the boat landing from Sea Island Parkway.

Sam Queen, a spokesperson for SC State Parks, says erosion is eating away the road, prompting the decision to close Russ Point Landing.

“It’s a barrier island that is continuing to change and that takes a lot of heat from the elements,” Queen said. “It’s unfortunate. This was a hard decision for us to come to.” It has gotten to the point, Queen added, where it no longer makes sense financially to “keep it open with Band-Aids.” The number of parking spaces has continued to shrink over time because of the erosion, she added.

The state’s most recent estimate for a temporary fix of the washed out portion of the road is $75,000, Queen said, but that would be a “very temporary fix.” That estimate, she added, came before additional damage was caused. And it does not include staff resources to keep the road clear of muck and debris after storms, fixes to combat erosion and day-to-day personnel hours to keep the ramp open.

“We’re fighting a losing battle with the tide and rising water levels,” Queen said.

Still, word of the closure is causing a firestorm among the local boating community.

“Russ Point, while being owned by the State, is used by all,” wrote Laura Morrow, who administers a Facebook Page called Island Dawgs focusing on the Fripp Island area. “Beaufort County would be the obvious best caretaker and manager; however, leadership is not taking the bull by the horns. Instead, they are allowing a valuable resource to close and disappear.”

Why, in a county with so much water and comprised of islands connected by bridges and where boats are a critical means of transportation, is this issue ignored?” Morrow asks. “More and better boat landings and transient dockage are needed.”

The land is located across Sea Island Parkway from Hunting Island State Park.

In 2022 Beaufort County said it’s not our problem

Beaufort County maintains 25 boat landings, in addition to 17 public-access points to water, bluffs and piers that don’t accommodate boats.

Russ Point Landing was one of those public access points. However, in 2022 then County Administrator Eric Greenway sent a letter to the state saying the county was relinquishing maintenance responsibility of Russ Point to the state because the state, not the county, in fact was the owner.

“It is the county’s desire to have Russ Point remain open and accessible to the citizens and visitors of the community to continue to be able to use the boat landing, but understand it is ultimately the State’s discretion as to how the property is used in the future,” Greenway wrote to South Carolina State Parks on June 16, 2002.

In that letter, the county asked the state to take over maintenance of Russ Point two weeks later on July 1, 2022.

The county’s decision to turn over the maintenance came after it conducted an ownership and title search for all county-maintained boat landings in 2021 for a Public Boat Landing Facilities Study, said Hannah Nichols, a county spokesperson.

As part of that process, it was discovered that while Beaufort County was maintaining the Russ Point Boat Landing, the property was owned by the state and no formal maintenance agreement was in place.

“After discussions with the state, it was agreed that the County would sign over maintenance of the landing to the state,” Nichols said in a statement. “Maintenance of the landing was signed over to the state of South Carolina mid-June in 2022.”

Sutton wrote on Facebook: “Why would they not support keeping public access?” adding, “Beaufort County’s leadership are out of their minds,”

But when County Council commissioners were debating the issue in May 2022, some commissioners, while acknowledge the importance of public access, also questioned the soundness of the county paying for maintenance of facilities it does not own.

A similar situation involving the Sands Beach boat ramp in Port Royal arose at the same time. In that case, agreements involving Safe Harbor Marinas, the town and Beaufort County were reached that ensured the boat ramp remained opened and maintained.