It's a welcome relief to those around the St. Joseph Harbor. Just a few months ago the harbor was turning ships away because the port was not accessible due to the low levels of water. Now dock presidents like Pete Berghoff, can look forward to the upcoming season.
"It's a simple equation, no water equals no boat, no boat equals no material, no material equals no dock." Berghoff said.
Berghoff operates Dock 63 and Red Arrow Transportation, he said towards the end of last year it seemed things were going to be able to run smoothly. But that was not the case after a boat carrying 13 tons of materials touched the bottom and shut down any planned operations.
That boat getting stuck lead to an emergency dredge in January which allowed a limited number of vessels to get through. But now the US Army Corps. of Engineers wants to help. They've approved nearly 700,000 dollars for dredging of the St. Joseph Harbor.
"For us it means that we have great hope for this next season. So I am very excited to get started." Berghoff said.
Larry Lavalley, the Harbor Master said this is big.
"Let's face it, without this, we're not even sure the harbor would be able to operate in 2012." Lavalley said.
An intricate part of St. Joseph Harbor getting the funding? Congressman Fred Upton.
"This is a guarantee that it's going to be open and it impacts people within hundreds of miles. It'll keep cost down, literally saving consumers tens of thousands of dollars on a variety of different projects." Upton said.
Upton is pushing for a bill to be passed called the Ramp Act. The law would make sure that the funds allocated to harbor maintenance are used for harbor maintenance. to ensure problems like this happen less often.
But for now, the harbor should be ready for the upcoming season. The dock workers said their hope is to have the first commercial vessel come through on or before March 15th.
"Seven-Hundred thousand dollars is a good amount of money and should allow us to do a good job with the harbors." Berghoff said.
