GL: Fwd: Closure of Illinois Waterway

[jonathan olenick]

Thank you for the posting and excellent info on the problem. Would towboat
U.S. members be treated any differently than non-members? Jon #00121879
unlimited. 




________________________________
From: "jmanley909 at aol.com"
<jmanley909 at aol.com>
To: great-loop at lists.samurai.com
Sent: Tuesday, August
25, 2009 4:51:47 PM
Subject: GL: Fwd: Closure of Illinois Waterway
-----Original Message-----
From: jmanley909 at aol.com
To:
great-loop at lists.samurai
Sent: Tue, Aug 25, 2009 6:46 pm
Subject: Closure of
Illinois Waterway



Hello All,

?

There is a closure of the Illinois
Waterway from MM 290.1 to 290.7. The closure is due to an electric fence at
that location to prevent Asian carp from coming north into the Great Lakes.
The fence is maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. There was an
opportunist that was offering to tow boats 400 feet for $600. I want to
emphasize that that was NOT Tow Boat U.S.. The CG put him out of business
becuse it turned out he had no license, thus no insurance.

It seems that the
Asian carp are becoming inured to the previously used voltage/amperage and
they are having to ramp up both to keep the carp at bay.

The closure involves
non-metallic hulled boats transiting the area with any engines (including
generators) in operation.

We have been in contact with the USCG about our
stationing a diesel powered metal hulled towboat at that location to tow
non-metallic hulls through the affected area. We are not holding our breath at
this time, as the Corps of Engineers is trying to figure out how they would
pay for the towing. I suggested that most boaters going that way would be
happy to pay a reasonable tow fee rather than? wait till the government plods
through hearings.

Our placing a towboat at that location would involve
sending a $950,000 vessel with 2-3 crew, who would live on the vessel during
the necessary period. Obviously this would involve some expense and we have
not figured out how to charge a fee just yet.

?

Jack Manley

Towboat U.S.
Chicago, Kenosha, Hammond, Waukegan, Michigan City, New Buffalo and Illinois
Waterway.
_______________________________________________
http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/great-loop

To modify your
Great-Loop subscription options (change email address,
unsubscribe, etc.) go
to: http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/options/great-loop
Tired of
spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com