River footbridge plan steps on toes Sternwheeler pilot says project would limit his access and income, as well as harm wildlife and lure transients December 24, 2007 Capt. Richard Chesbrough, pilot of the Willamette Queen sternwheeler, fears that his popular cruise business is headed for a collision with city plans to build a pedestrian footbridge linking Riverfront Park to Minto-Brown Island. Stoking the river pilot's concerns are preliminary designs for the city of Salem envisioning construction of a 345-foot-long, 16-foot-wide span over the Willamette Slough -- the narrow channel between south Riverfront Park and the north tip of the island. For safety reasons, Chesbrough normally avoids the Willamette River's main stem during the winter season because of lurking logs and debris. Instead, he ferries passengers into the calm backwater slough. If the footbridge project moves forward, Chesbrough said, it would block slough access for the 87-foot, 86-ton sternwheeler. He vowed to fight the project, if necessary. "I'm not a rabble-rouser type of guy," he said. "However, I will stand up and fight if it gets to that. It's a matter of survival. My business would not survive because I would have to cancel way too many cruises." Thom Kaffun, parks planning and project manager for the city of Salem, said it was too early to respond to Chesbrough's concerns. "The Willamette Queen is not really an issue now," he said. "That's way down the road. ... This thing could happen tomorrow, or it could happen in a year. We don't know." For more than 20 years, environmental concerns and private land ownership snags have stymied city ambitions to build a footbridge linking the downtown riverfront to Minto-Brown Island. Now, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department is seeking to buy Boise Cascade's 310 acres on the island. The prospective deal hinges on the site gaining a clean bill of health from the state Department of Environmental Quality, which could come by spring. If a park blossoms on the long-mothballed industrial site, that will breathe new life into the footbridge project. "We're kind of out of the loop until then," Kaffun said. "If environmental was OK and state parks bought the land, then we'd work with state parks to get permission to build the bridge." Bridge construction potentially could require approval from multiple government agencies, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Coast Guard and the state Department of Environmental Quality. Chesbrough, who said a footbridge cannot be allowed to impede navigation, already has spelled out his concerns in letters to the city of Salem, the U.S. Coast Guard and the state Lands Division. He's confident that state and federal clearance won't be forthcoming for any bridge that would bar him from navigating the slough. "I really don't think I'm going to have much of a fight," Chesbrough said. "If the city continues to proceed on this, they won't get a permit, and guess what? They won't get a footbridge. Without a permit, they can't do squat."
Two footbridges eyed About a year ago, city-commissioned work confirmed that it was feasible to build a footbridge to the island from the south end of Riverfront Park, Kaffun said. The bridge probably would be located near Eco-Earth, a 25-foot-tall stainless steel sphere that once was a storage tank for acid used in papermaking. It now is covered with more than 86,000 glittering tiles representing a global depiction of diverse people, places and animals. Preliminary bridge designs depicted a three-span structure atop concrete box beams that might be donated for the project. Cost for the bridge and a multi-use pathway on the island has been pegged at $1.5 million to $2 million. Donations and grants would be sought to help pay for it. According to park planners, the footbridge project has enormous potential, particularly when coupled with another pedestrian bridge planned for the downtown waterfront. Moving faster is the city's plan to convert the Union Street Railroad Bridge into a Willamette River walkway linking north Riverfront Park to Wallace Marine Park in West Salem. The city already has approved funding and construction for the $3.3 million bridge project. It's expected to open in about a year. Linking the opposite end of Riverfront Park to Minto-Brown Island would complete a stellar package, Kaffun said. "You'd have one of the biggest walking areas and bicycling areas across a major river system west of the Mississippi," he said. "It could be a great hub for the entire downtown core area. I mean, that's the ultimate goal. Whether it comes to reality or not, I don't know at this point. We've got one -- the railroad bridge -- but we don't have the other one yet." Quick access to the island by a footbridge appeals to hikers, bikers, joggers and others enticed by tantalizing prospects for recreational outings. "If I could take my kids over there, that would be great," Julie Farr said on a recent day at Riverfront Park as she watched her four children, ages 4 to 10. "Don't you think it would be cool to have a big park over there and a bridge to it?" Farr asked the children. Captivated by the nearby presence of a nutria, they didn't respond to their mom's question. Willamette University professor Rick Watkins, visiting the park with his two young children, said the nearby island would be a great place for picnics, walks, birdwatching and other activities. Watkins said he could understand why the operator of the Willamette Queen might be upset about the possible development of a footbridge. But, he said, the fate of a single business should take a backseat to the overall public benefits that would result from having access to the island. More sympathetic to Chesbrough was Betsy Belshaw, a longtime Salem parks activist who favors the railroad bridge conversion but opposes the proposed footbridge to Minto-Brown Island. "That would totally mess up his income," she said. Belshaw also cited spinoff problems, such as homeless camp sites and wildlife poaching, that could crop up with public access to the north island area. "It's a wildlife sanctuary now. I'd sort of like to keep it that way," she said. From the pilot house of the Willamette Queen, Chesbrough said he keeps tabs on abundant wildlife on the off-limits part of the island. "There are 29 deer that live on that end of the island," he said, rattling off his unofficial tally. "There are three nests with bald eagles. There are ospreys and owls and beavers, and it goes on and on ..." The animal population would scatter if people and dogs suddenly began trekking to the secluded area by a footbridge, Chesbrough said. "I understand that parks are for people, but there's no other place for those animals to live," he said. "That's their home. I don't think putting a roadway through there for joggers and bicyclists is important enough to dislodge all those animals." Chesbrough also predicted that a bridge to the island would open the floodgates for transient campers. "If that end of the island gets opened up, I can guarantee you that it will be full of transients and homeless people in no time," he said. He characterized his concerns about wildlife habitat and homeless campers as secondary issues. Keeping his cruise business afloat takes precedence. "I'm not trying to be a problem child here," he said, "but if people want the sternwheeler to stay in Salem, I've got to be able to operate year-round, and the only way I can operate year-round is by having access to the back of Minto-Brown Island."
Survival at stake, river pilot says Willamette Queen cruises have been a popular attraction on Salem's riverfront for nearly a decade. The sternwheeler's capacity is 90 people. It carries about 30,000 passengers per year, Chesbrough said. Built in Newport in 1990, the sternwheeler was designed as a scaled-down likeness of the former Mississippi and Yukon Territory riverboats. During non-cruise hours, it can be seen docked along the downtown riverfront. As Chesbrough tells it, the sternwheeler pays tribute to a bygone era when Salem was a river city and steamboats provided the main mode of transportation on the upper Willamette from Oregon City to Eugene. If the city proceeds with building a bridge over the slough, Chesbrough wants planners to consider alternative designs that wouldn't block his boat's passage. The sternwheeler stands about 34 feet above the water. "If a footbridge is going to be constructed, it has to be removable, like the Wallace Marine boat dock is, or it's got to be some sort of opening bridge that can be left open during the winter months," he said. Chesbrough was adamant that his cruise business would go belly up without access to the back-channel route. "The Coast Guard will not allow me to be out on the main stem of the river when there's so much debris flowing down the river in the high-flow months," he said. "By going around to the back of the island in the slough, I'm totally safe at all times. It's not nerve-wracking on me as the captain, and it's not nerve-wracking on my passengers." His slough cruises normally last from late November through April, Chesbrough said. Passengers rave about the back-channel route, he said. "December is the busiest month of the year for us," he said. "We carry a lot of Christmas partyers, and I always go behind Minto-Brown Island so they can relax and have a great time. We get to see the governor's mansion, and people have their houses all lit up on the backside of Fairmount Hill. We cruise right underneath all that." Chesbrough said other cities have invited him to relocate. "I've got an open invitation from the city of Newberg and the city of Lake Oswego to moor the boat right there at their city docks," he said. "I would be in a nice deep-water area." Citing ties to Salem and the success of his family-run business, Chesbrough said he doesn't want to move. "This is my home. My whole family lives around Salem. We have a beautiful home in West Salem. I don't want to leave." agustafs@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6709 |