Patrolling the River

The Ohio River belongs to all of us.

We all drink its water, we all enjoy its beauty and we all recreate in it or on it, whether that means fishing, boating, skiing, tubing, swimming or zooming around in a personal watercraft.

But when that recreation goes awry — when there’s a boat wreck or a swimmer in trouble or a body in the river — suddenly it seems to belong to but a few of us.

At least that’s the implication if one looks how we fund water rescue agencies on the Northern Kentucky side of the river.

The river of course is patrolled by a number of agencies at all levels of government, from the U.S. Coast Guard to the state of Ohio to Hamilton County to the city of Cincinnati.

But increasingly the go-to agencies for emergencies downtown and points up- and down-river are the Boone County Water Rescue Team, the Campbell County Water Rescue Team and the Covington Fire Department.

Yet all three agencies — citing a lack of stable, broad funding sources — say lack of money is cutting into their effectiveness. Allocations from their sponsoring agencies do not pay the bills, and so they’re forced to solicit grants and donations and hold fund-raisers to buy fuel and keep their boats operating.

One problem, it appears, is that communities that don’t border the river (but whose residents recreate on it and whose businesses benefit from its proximity) don’t feel they should have to help pay for agencies that patrol it.

Gary Moore, judge-executive in Boone County, which has the biggest rescue agency, said he might again propose some sort of regional coordination during a meeting of county leaders later this month.

That is a fabulous idea.

It makes no sense to divide the river into segments and create separate entities to patrol those areas. And it makes no sense to force those agencies to beg for money, to cut corners, to rely on volunteers and donated time to get the job done, particularly with the costs of fuel, training and equipment growing so exponentially.

We have no problem with the job these agencies are doing. But we think their mission could be done so much more effectively as a regionally coordinated agency with an established, regional and stable funding source — in other words, where everybody assumes responsibility for a river we all enjoy.

The editorial board at The Post has long preached regional approaches to regional problems, believing that such solutions tap into economies of scale, benefit from better communication and cooperation and result in more fair and equitable burdens.

To us, this is one of those situations tailor-made for such an approach.

This weekend’s Riverfest fireworks celebration is a dramatic statement of how the river unites us. That same unity should extend to after the party as well.

(c) 2007 Cincinnati Post. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.