Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
The Kentucky River locks were ancient. Some of the dams still had saplings used for
reinforcement of concrete--an ancient way of construction. They were really late last
century, early this century construction. They were also very small. To really be a modern
waterway you'd really have to invest some bucks in the system. To do it right, we were going
to have to start replacing dams and locks, so it really was not in the best interest of anyone to
continue. The problem was that between Locks 8 and 9 there were some very pretty
palisades. There was a scenic boat operator just above Lock 9. He would board people there
and they would have a very nice sojourn down the river, lock through, see the palisades, and
return. You could not enter the river between the locks because of the bank heights. The
palisades were especially nice during the fall of the year. He had a small, but nice,
commercial enterprise there.
Opposition to our closing the river developed, with congressional help. We persisted, and
Gene Eastburn spent many nights in various meetings. I think it went on to his successor,
Colonel Dwayne Lee, who was the final person to put this issue to bed. He met with
governor's representatives. There were hearings and then they changed governors and the
state's position reversed. Then we offered it to the state. It didn't have a federal interest, but
if the state wished a commercial tourist operation there, the state could pick up the locks and
operate them. Many of the arguments advanced had to do with the responsibility for water
supply for local communities, and safety, and so forth. Well, we really determined that there
was not a safety problem. If one of them should breach during a heavy flood, the flood itself
would have already damaged all the things that the breach would do because they were not
large ponds.
We welded the lock gates closed and stopped operating them. My recommendation to the
Director of Civil Works was to allow the state the opportunity to take over the Kentucky
River if they chose, or sell it off to commercial interests if somebody wanted to buy portions
such as Lock 8 and operate it. When we thought we had the state ready to go, and they were
organizing to do it, then they would change their mind. Somebody came in and said the
Corps must restore it to the right levels of service. Since we hadn't spent the million dollars a
year in maintenance for a couple of years, we should then spend a couple of million dollars to
fix it back to the right condition before they would take it over. Anyway, that was the issue
on Locks 5 through 14 of the Kentucky River. We basically closed it of our own volition.
Q:
You went from the position of Deputy Director of Civil Works to the Ohio River Division in
January of 1981. Could you say a little bit about how the assignment came about and your
transition into the division?
A:
Well, I was selected for promotion to brigadier in November 1979 while the Deputy
Assistant Chief of Engineers. General Morris, the Chief, planned to leave me in the ACE
until summer 1980. Over the year, it had been discussed with General Morris that I would
move to be the Deputy for Civil Works in summer of 1979. General Heiberg was the
Director of Civil Works, and he'd concurred.
As I moved to Civil Works, all of a sudden the new Chief--Joe Bratton--was announced
and Harry Griffith was chosen to be the Director of the Defense Nuclear Agency. That left a
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