‘Sometimes you just got to do the right thing.’ It took a team effort to remove abandoned boat from St. Croix River.

Wayne Prokosch of River City Welding in Stockholm Wis may never have to buy another drink in the St Croix River Valley Prokosch spent much of the weekend working to remove an abandoned -foot cruiser from the St Croix River near Hudson Wis a move that s led to numerous people up and down the river offering to buy him dinner and drinks People were even cheering from shore as he towed the Sweet Destiny down river on Sunday morning he explained I m not a hero he reported We do this every day on the job so it s no big deal to us Everybody s just happy to see it gone you know And so am I I got sick of the phone calls about it There s not very multiple people who are capable of doing the project Sometimes you just got to do the right thing you know Prokosch started the job along with three other men on Friday morning and got the boat called Sweet Destiny to the Hudson Excursion docks in Hudson owned by St Croix River Cruises Prokosch worked with Josh Stokes a River City Welding employee and Gordy and Dave Jarvis from St Croix Cruises and the Afton House Inn to get the water pumped out from the boat and towed away Prokosch had a prior commitment on Saturday his daughter was graduating from the University of Wisconsin in Eau Claire so the boat stayed docked at the Hudson Excursion dock with constant pumping and supervision Dave Jarvis noted By a m Sunday morning Prokosch was back on site with his barge and crane We had our equipment up in the area anyway so we just decided we could take a scarce hours out of our day Prokosch explained I figured we would just swing in there and make it happen and get rid of the story and get rid of the headache and just all the crap that went with it It took until about p m to make the -mile journey to Hager City Wis which included a journey through Lock on the Mississippi River We had to keep the pumps running the whole time because the boat was leaking like crazy gallons every minutes he noted Once they got to Hager City across the river from Red Wing Minn crews hauled the boat out on a hydraulic trailer and put it on the back of a semitractor trailer belonging to EdgeWater Boat Storage Shipping for the five-mile trip to the company s storage area he announced Prokosch who has worked on the river since noted he has done work for the cities of Hudson and Prescott Wis in the past That s another reason why I did it just to do a residents duty he announced I just yearned to get rid of all the talk about the boat on the river and just put it behind us He revealed he hopes Grayson McNew the man who abandoned the boat on Beer Can Island in August after it started to take on water learned a valuable lesson from the experience If it sounds too good to be true preponderance of the time it usually is Prokosch disclosed A man who hopes to restore the boat paid River City Welding for their work the job would normally cost much more than that reported Dave Jarvis who helped coordinate the removal The man who sought not to be identified also paid EdgeWater for their services Jarvis stated All these regime agencies couldn t get it done he revealed But two river veterans Prokosch and Gordy Jarvis could It s been an eyesore and frankly an embarrassing thing for our neighborhood for too long McNew of Afton owes the City of Hudson about in fines for abandoning the boat Hudson City Administrator Brentt Michalek commented Monday It s already gone to collections he commented We could choose to waive certain of it but there are costs that are already incurred by the city that he is responsible for This wasn t a cheap thing for us A lot of time was spent trying to get this individual to move his boat The Jarvises plan to work with the Hudson business region to raise extra funds for Prokosch Gordy Jarvis noted Wayne deserves several selected recognition Gordy Jarvis commented He s such a humble guy that he doesn t really want anything but he s so deserving and the population knows it and they want to be a part of that Dave Jarvis stated he hopes the man who paid the initial fee to remove the boat gets it fixed up and seaworthy again Beauty s in the eye of the beholder he revealed All I can say is God bless anyone who wants to try to fix it up It s going to take a lot of love and the right knowledge and the right person But it may happen You never know One man s trash is another man s treasure Related Articles Wisconsin angler fishing in Lake Michigan fog discovers remains of abandoned tugboat J C Ames Wisconsin judge accused of helping a man dodge immigration agents seeks donations for attorneys Here s how a local nonprofit is connecting people with horses for free Remains of woman missing since are unveiled in St Cloud area Wisconsin Trollhaugen s Adventure Park feature closing permanently