Frontier Boat Launch
Partners in Action - Working together to serve people and care for the land of southeast Ohio
The Frontier Boat Launch opened in spring 2011. Ohio is in the top ten in the nation for boating, with 400,000 registered boaters.
Boating is big business, and this six-acre public site is a welcome asset for the local economy. Statewide, recreational boating brings in $3.2 billion per year! With the Ohio River Scenic Byway and this premier launch facility, local communities hope more visitors will come to the area.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources - Division of Watercraft awarded $2.2 million to the project. Ohio has invested $39 million between 1997 and 2013 to improve boater access. The USDA Forest Service-Wayne National Forest oversaw the project and contributed funding as well.
In 2012, the Wayne National Forest staff was nationally recognized for the Frontier Boat Launch as providing one of the few fully accessible boat launch facilities along this section of the Ohio River.
The late Sam Kidd, former President of the Local Economic Development Association (FLEDA), was a staunch supporter of the Frontier boat launch.
New Matamoras Mayor Dennis Agin described Sam as someone who could walk into an office, "tell you a joke, ask you to do something you didn't
want to do; but, by the time he got done talking about it, you were convinced it was your idea and you couldn't wait to do it."
With Sam's help everyone in the area was soon behind this project. Sam's wife Vesta represented FLEDA at the opening ceremony.
Local Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6387 and 5108, along with Cub Scout Pack 250, raised the flag at the ribbon cutting for the boat launch. The flag pole was donated and installed by the boat launch contractor Jerry Welch, President of the D.J. Group, Inc. who is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business located in Beverly, OH.
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