The Kings Point Ferry, which transports hunters this time of year to camps at Kings Point Island, will be out of service until Sunday due to a shortage of pilots, Warren County Road Manager Richard Winans said this morning.

Saturday marks the opening of Mississippi’s white-tailed deer hunting season with guns.

One of two pilots employed on the vessel is out with a back injury while another has worked 11 consecutive days, Winans said. The ferry will resume operations at 6 p.m. Sunday, he said.

Private boats were expected to ferry individuals to Kings Point Island during the closure.

Greg Thompson, caretaker of Riverland Plantation on the island, plans to offer rides for up to six people per trip from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday.

He said this weekend’s closure is the second inconvenience for hunters since early October, when the ferry opened late for the start of bow season.

“It’s really the wrong time of year for all of this,” he said. “It’s just the situation the county’s put us in.”

In September, Louisiana-based Riverland and two other groups of property owners on the island rekindled a long-running court fight with Warren County over the ferry’s operating hours.

The firms argue the county hasn’t honored terms of a 1997 court order to run the ferry 15 1/2 hours daily. County officials contend staffing and budget issues have forced them to employ two Coast Guard-certified pilots and offer the service 12 hours daily.

The case is before retired 11th Chancery District Judge Ray H. Montgomery, appointed by the Mississippi Supreme Court in October to hear the case when chancellors in the Delta-based 9th District recused themselves.

Winans expects to re-run advertisements for another pilot next week.

Those ads have appeared intermittently in trade publications and listed openings with the Mississippi Department of Employment Security.

“I don’t know how many hundreds we’ve spent trying to hire another pilot,” Winans said.

Maintenance costs on the ferry have run between $300,000 and $400,000 annually over the past five years, including fuel.