TR Race to the Regatta

The little river town of Augusta, Kentucky hugs the banks of the Ohio so tightly that most buildings are less than three blocks from the shore.

Riverside drive, a tree-lined street with splendid colonial homes, curves along the water’s edge from Ferry Street at the north to boat docks bordering Hamilton Avenue on the southern tip of town.

Every summer, five to 10 paddle-wheelers tie up on the small town’s shore for a weekend of races and festivities. The town’s population typically swells from 1,500 to more than 10,000 for the Annual Augusta Sternwheel Regatta.

Even hometown boy-turned- movie star George Clooney has shown up for the regattas. During the early planning days, this looked like a special year for the Regatta. This Festival celebrates Augusta’s 200th birthday.

But in March, the floodwaters covered more than half of the town. The future of the Regatta turned grim.

“It was hard to think about a festival when waves of water were six feet high in our homes,” said Jim Gibson of the Augusta Regatta Committee.

“During the month of March we just let it go,” Gibson said of festival planning. “Mayor Louis Habermehl told us we had to put the show on-we couldn’t just quit. So here we are. We have no available motels and only two bed and breakfasts can be used-they were all wiped out in the flood.”

Four bed and breakfasts and the town’s only hotel have been closed since the spring flood. Most Regatta visitors have to find accommodations in Maysville, about eight miles away. Festival planners expect the event will raise the town’s spirits.

“It’s a wonderful festival,” said Betty McClanahan, who has chaired the festival committee for the past five years. “It opens with one birthday cake big enough for 500 people, and entertainment-all free. That’s what this was to begin with. Some people in Augusta might not be able to take their children out of town, so this was something for them.”

Augusta held a sternwheel regatta for four years beginning in 1978, Ms. McClanahan said, but high water conditions in 1981 forced the city to cancel the event. Without revenue, the festival had no money for the following year’s Regatta.

“Then the city council gave us $2000 and we’ve built on it from there,” Ms Clanahan said.

Last year 52 vendors applied for the 10 available spots on Riverside Drive, said Gibson. “Everything must be handmade by the vendor.”

The biggest task was replacing the stage while the committee was constructing a new stage. “The stage perches on the riverbank and it completely washed away in a flood…I decided to bite the bullet and pay for a new stage until the city can reimburse me.”

The mayor spent about $8000 to replace the wooden stage with a more solid structure of concrete and rock. “It will take an out-of-control river barge to move that baby,” Gibson said.

Rebuilding from the flood has been expensive for all of the town, said Ray Boguki, an attorney with law offices on Riverside Drive.

“I had to gut all the walls in the building and refinish any salvageable furniture,” said Boguki. “But for a view of the river like this, it’s worth it. It will always be worth it.”

Most of Augusta’s houses look okay from the outside, said Barbara Kelsch, whose bed and breakfast was substantially damaged and wasn’t ready for the Regatta crowd.

“But the insides are horrendous. The general opinion was not to have the festival…but it was the Bicentennial. So we tried to do it and we did it,” Ms McClanahan said. “We couldn’t give up the Regatta tradition.”

“The pottery man who has been here for 19 years-everyone loves him,” she said. “You get to sit at his wheel and make a pot. It’s free. We pay him.”

And the man who sings “Old Man River” before the Regatta-whose voice is so deep it sounds like it’s coming from his shoes.”

“These people helped us decide that the spirit of Augusta could overcome the flood,” said Ms. McClanahan.

“We just pray for good weather and every year’s festival is the best one yet.”

Dorothy Johnston; dbj_1@msn.com