Rockland Farm Owner Responds to White’s Ferry Announcement of Increased Offer to Purchase Landing Site

On Wednesday,  the owners of White’s Ferry announced they had increased their offer to purchase the Virginia landing site from Rockland Farm to $1.25 million, an increase of $150,000 from the offer that was made in January. We reached out to Rockland Farms owner Libby Delvin, who provided the following response: “We continue to believe that a volume-based fee based on the amount and size of vehicles using our land is the fairest way to compensate us for the use of our land. Fifty-cents per car is very reasonable. The operator can increase the fee of the ferry and pay Rockland Farm accordingly. Most people are willing to pay an additional incremental amount in order to re-open the ferry.”

White’s Ferry ceased operations back in December 2020. You can read White Ferry’s statement from yesterday below:
“To encourage the re-opening of White’s Ferry, ferry owners Chuck and Stacy Kuhn worked closely with Maryland, Virginia, Montgomery, and Loudoun Counties, and previous ferry owner Herb Brown to once again make an offer to purchase the Virginia landing site from Rockland Farm in an effort to get the ferry reopened for its nearly 1,100 daily users. The newest offer is now for $1.25 million for the 1.4 acres, an increase from the last offer in January of $1.1 million. Both offers are well above the land value.

Other options also recently proposed by the Kuhns as ways to get the ferry opened as soon as possible, include:

· Selling the ferry directly to Rockland Farms or to Montgomery County or the state of Maryland.

· Donating the ferry, the ferry business, and the Maryland landing to the county if Rockland Farm would donate the Virginia landing.

It’s unclear whether Rockland Farm owners will accept the new offer, buy the ferry, or consider donating their land as the Kuhns have suggested. Or whether the local jurisdictions will purchase the ferry. The Kuhns remain committed to getting the ferry open to the local community as quickly as possible and await an answer.”