31-May-13 – Representatives of businesses that operate on the Chicago River are working together to create a “harbor safety committee” that will have to approve any new business that wants to set up shop on the river.

Michael Borgstrom, president of Wendella Sightseeing Company, Inc., says the committee, overseen by the U.S. Coast Guard, will “help to determine what type of operations would be suitable for specific locations.”

“For example, if someone said, ‘I have this great idea. I’m going to rent out these little sailboats and I want to do this over between Lake Street and Franklin at the junction of the river,’ the committee’s going to say, ‘absolutely not, because that’s one of the busiest parts of the river.’” Photo: Wendella president Michael Borgstrom (right) at a meeting in 2010 hosted by Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.

According to Borgstrom, it was the small electric boats being rented by Chicago Electric Boat Company out of the marina at Marina City that helped inspire the safety committee. He says he first learned of the boats during a meeting in 2012 with the Chicago Department of Transportation, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and other river regulators – and, he says, “no one in that room knew about it.”

Going forward, the safety committee would meet with owners of a proposed operation and discuss how to best make it work.

Kayaks source of concern for commercial operators

Although the commercial vessels on the Chicago River generally get along, Borgstrom says he is concerned about “human powered craft” such as kayaks. Wendella vessels, he says, often have to help people get back into their kayaks, “which we’re happy to do.”

He says there have been close calls between Wendella boats and kayakers in their path. One time, they found an empty kayak floating in the river. He points out that people can have kayak experience but still be a hazard because they have never been on an urban waterway.

“It’s like the skier who goes down the double black diamond and breaks his leg,” he says, referring to a ski trail rated for experts only. “He’s not as good as he thinks.”

So far, Borgstrom has found the kayak businesses to be cooperative but “somehow we’re going to have to figure out a way for everyone to co-exist.”

The committee will be comprised, according to Borgstrom, of “pretty much everybody that’s on the water.” That would include Shoreline Sightseeing, Mercury Skyline Yacht Charters, and companies that dock at Navy Pier but pass through the Chicago River.