Boater who drew two COCF&R responses Saturday will be getting big bill

WALDPORT – Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue will be sending an Albany boater a pretty big bill for causing such a ruckus on the river Saturday.

COCF&R firefighters twice had to respond to calls from Michael C. Herring of Albany for help pulling him off a sandbar in the Alsea River 1¼ miles up river from McKinley’s RV Park and Marina, where he was staying.

That was after Herring drew the ire of riverside residents along the Alsea after speeding downstream about 4 p.m. Saturday and causing large wakes that rattled docks and boats for miles.

Central Coast first responded to a call at 4:40 p.m. saying that a boater was stuck on a sandbar east of McKinleys. Two firefighters in the district’s rescue boat responded, but when they arrived Herring told them he and his two passengers would wait until high tide floated them off the sandbar, said COCF&R Chief Jamie Mason.

At 8:14 p.m. COCF&R received a mutual aid call from the U.S. Coast Guard asking them to tow Herring’s boat to McKinley’s because it had no power. But the Coast Guard also refused to fly its rescue helicopter to illuminate the scene and provide backup coverage in case something went wrong, Mason said, because they said it was “too dangerous to fly” near trees along the shoreline.

Herring will be billed for the two responses because he lives outside of the COCF&R district and its mutual aid partner districts, Mason said. The rate is $2,000 for each time the rescue boat is launched, and $255 an hour for operations and various personnel, Mason said, leading to a bill that should total $5,000.

A boat matching the description of Herring’s drew angry responses from homeowners along the Alsea after it raced down river Saturday afternoon at very high speeds. It led several residents to drive to the Port of Alsea and McKinleys to see if they could get boat registration information.

Tom Fullmer, executive director of the Waldport Chamber of Commerce, lives along the river in the Tidewater area and was startled by what he thought was a low flying aircraft Saturday afternoon.

“Then we saw this boat blow by faster than anything we’ve ever seen,” Fullmer said, disregarding “no wake zone” and speed limit signs on the many docks in the area.