Winter '11

From the President

By David G. Barber

Included in last summer’s issue of American Canals was an insert about a planned meeting to be held in Delphi, IN in September, 2011. Also included was a request for feedback of preliminary interest in attending this meeting. I regret to report that the response was extremely underwhelming. Our conclusion is that the format, timing, location, and other elements of this meeting were not of sufficient interest to you to continue with the planning of this meeting and the commitment of the time and considerable deposits involved. Therefore, the proposed meeting is officially cancelled.

Moving forward, Bob Sears is working on a meeting for June 2012, at the McMaster University Conference Centre, beside the Desjardins Canal, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. This will be more in line with state society field trips and will in fact be the spring meeting for the Canal Society of New York State.

Elsewhere, I am pleased to note that in October, the Berlin Wisconsin Boat Club succeeded in dewatering and inspecting the lock at Eureka on the upper Fox River. This lock connects Berlin to Lake Winnebago. Apparently, the concrete is fine and they only needed to rebuild the gates and gate operating equipment. That is their next goal.

On the lower Fox River, the Friends of the Fox web site reports that funds are now in hand for rebuilding work on the five Kaukauna Locks. Design work is underway for a 2011 rebuilding of Kaukauna Lock 5, the lowest. The others will follow through 2014. Upon completion of this work and the rebuilding of the Mill Street lift bridge at Little Chute all of the seventeen locks will be operational except the Rapid Croche Lock (the third upstream of Green Bay) which will remain closed as an invasive species barrier. Planning is proceeding on a boat lift and boat cleaning / inspection at this location. The upper six locks and the lower two locks were available for public use on a limited schedule in 2010.

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