Letter below was on JAVINS CORPORATION letterhead, 1000 Dupont Road, P. O. Box 491, Morgantown WV 26507-0491, 304-292-3234 (fax: 3235). Email is bjavins@westco.net.

June 10, 1999

RE: Monongahela River: Morgantown to Fairmont, WV

Representative Alan B. Mollohan
2346 Rayburn Office Building
Washington DC 20515

Dear Representative Mollohan:

Subject: Recreational River Navigation

Thank you for taking the time from your busy schedule to read this letter. I am a lifelong resident and citizen of West Virginia and a business owner and employer since 1992. I am also a boater and Captain in the American Sternwheel Association. Our family has a sternwheel river boat docked near Morgantown, WV. We are river people who enjoy plying the navigable rivers of West Virginia. We try to go to the Charleston Sternwheel Regatta (an 840 mile round trip) every year, as well as attend other regattas and festivals up and down the rivers.

We believe, and our sternwheel friends agree, that the stretch of the Monongahela River from Morgantown to the end of navigation near Fairmont, WV is one of the most beautiful stretches of navigable river in the eastern USA (I may be a little biased since I live here).

This past week end we took my daughter's girl scout troop to our fishing camp above the Hildebrand Lock & Dam for a week end camp out. We took a side trip on up the river through the Opekiska Lock & Dam to the Prickett's Fort State Park. The girl scouts thought the river and river boating was wonderful. Along the trip we visited with the Lockmasters, we discovered that Hildebrand L&D and Opekiska L&D were only operated between 8:00AM and 4:00PM this year and maybe soon the Locks would be closed on weekends. Indeed, it appears that these two locks may be closed if there is not the necessary tonnage of commercial traffic. Last year we accepted the locks staying open from 8:00AM to 12:00AM (midnight), we were not pleased with the lack of twenty-four hour availability, but we got used to it.

We know that we are not the only boaters who use Hildebrand and Opekiska Locks & Dams. We meet other boaters who use these facilities whenever we are on the river. Every year we meet boaters from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, on this stretch of the river. Last year we met two boating couples from Missouri plying our waters for the adventure and scenery. When word of the shutting down of this part of the river becomes widely known, a significant source of tourism for northern West Virginia will disappear. The loss of the use of these facilities in West Virginia is a loss for the State.

Occasionally I will read in the Dominion Post newspaper articles about various state, county, and city agencies and organizations are trying to promote the use of the Monongahela River in West Virginia. I think this is great. But now I am hearing that our federal government is slowly shutting down the use of the Monongahela River in West Virginia. I think that this is a shame. This letter is a request from one of your concerned constituents to please save the twenty-four hour usage of West Virginia Locks and Dams on the Monongahela River. The loss of use of these facilities is a loss to the community and to West Virginia of tourism and potential future commercial activity.

When we travel down this river through Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh PA and on down the Ohio river to Wheeling and Parkersburg WV, we find the river alive with boaters, marinas, stores, restaurants, and, other facilities. The Monongahela River in West Virginia should have the same activity.

Our lakes (Cheat Lake, Tygart Lake and others) are quite busy and often crowded in the Summer, soon the Monongahela will be rediscovered. Bass fishing clubs already hold tournaments on some part of the river every weekend. If the locks are closed, there will be little access to this part of the river and little chance for development.

I fear that some bureaucrat in some obscure office of the federal government is trying to redirect funding to a new agenda at the expense of West Virginia. Please do what you can to keep the Locks and Dams on the Monongahela River in West Virginia open.

If I can be of any use or service to keep these facilities open, I will happily participate. Thank you for your attention. A Grateful Thank You in the future if you can remedy this situation for Northern West Virginia.

Best regards,

/s/ Brooks Javins

Captain of HENNY COOK

Copy: Senator Rockefeller
Senator Byrd
Representative Wise
Governor Underwood
Morgantown Dominion Post