Plans for an afternoon cruise on the Missouri River were short-lived Thursday night when a pair of Coast Guard inspectors who were crossing the bridge spotted the craft about to leave shore.
The Capital Sand barge and tugboat were being used by Central Bank as a way to thank customers for their patronage.
"We bought the barge at last year's YMCA auction," said Dan Westhues, senior vice president at Central Bank. "The Farmer family donates the barge for the auction every year, so we decided this would be a nice way to thank customers."
The Farmer family owns Capital Sand, which operates the boat and the barge that were to be used from 3-4:30 p.m. Thursday.
According to Lt. Sean Haley with the Coast Guard office in St. Louis, two inspectors were going back to St. Louis after having done some inspections at the Lake of the Ozarks.
They were going over the Missouri River bridge when they saw the barge full of people and thought it looked unusual. So they pulled off the highway and went down to the Noren River access to inquire about what was about to happen.
"What they found were numerous unsafe conditions," Haley said. "There were numerous fractures in the hull of the barge as well as severe corrosion. There were also some leaks in one of the barge compartments."
When the inspectors asked how many people were on board the barge, no one in charge of the operation had an exact figure, Haley said.
"If someone fell overboard, you wouldn't know how many people you had when you started out," he said.
Haley also said there were an insufficient number of life jackets for those on board. However, Westhues disputed that statement.
"I know we loaded 300 life jackets," Weshues said.
However, Haley noted, the barge was not designed to carry passengers. He said, "We feel we saved the lives of 300 people."
Haley said Central Bank officials voluntarily cancelled the excursion and the inspectors did not terminate it.
"We never were told what the issues were," Westhues said. "By the time they did talk to us, we only had 15 minutes left of the time we had allotted."
Kirk Farmer with Capital Sand said on Friday, "First and foremost, we operate in a safe manner, and we called it off to make sure we were working under Coast Guard guidelines. We were unaware of any license of approval needed to host a charity event. These have been done for years for several charitable organizations. People want to see the view of the Capitol, and we're happy to help."
Haley said the tugboat/barge mode of transportation for people is not unprecedented, but the Coast Guard wants operators to go through proper channels to be properly inspected to operate.
"On the Illinois River, there is a tug and barge ferry similar to this, although they don't take as many passengers out," he said. "They have to meet strict standards.
"We get a lot of inquires about people wanting to take out passengers" he said. "But once we inform them of the regulations, most of those people don't continue because of what's involved."
Farmer added, "The Coast Guard just wanted to be notified, and we will do that. I want to emphasize there were no citations found. We have a good working relationship with the Coast Guard and will continue to do so. It's unfortunate that those people Thursday had their trip cancelled.
"We'll continue to hold these type of events working under Coast Guard guidelines. None of the things the inspectors said they found were communicated to us at that time," he said. "We would never put the public in an unsafe environment."