Edwina Casey, chairman of the Mathews County Board of Supervisors, told fellow board members during a June 28 meeting that they should possibly consider selling the East River Boat Yard to a private buyer.

Casey and fellow supervisor Charles Ingram had met the week before with a number of residents who live on Mill Lane, where the boat yard is located, and those residents expressed opposition to the county’s longstanding plan to build a new boat ramp and fishing pier at the site for use by both watermen and the general public.

The estimated cost of the proposed project, $406,000, “is a lot of money,” Casey said during the supervisors’ monthly meeting, which was held in the historic courthouse. The county paid $250,000 for the parcel in 2004.

“There’s access at plenty of places in the county,” she said, “but this seems to be a sinking hole.”

Supervisor G.C. Morrow wanted to know if the resident who expressed interest in buying th...