AP — Passenger service on Oklahoma River water taxis began Friday with city leaders touting the event as another success story connected with the 15-year-old Metropolitan Area Projects plan.
Two 65-foot-long cruisers, the Devon Discovery and the Devon Explorer, are being used along a 7-mile span of the river, connecting Regatta Park just south of downtown Oklahoma City with a dock on the city's western side near Meridian Avenue and Interstate 40, an area that includes a half-dozen hotels.
A third cruiser, the Devon Pioneer, will be available for service in late May or early June. Each cruiser can hold up to 35 passengers.
Devon Energy Corp., an Oklahoma City-based oil and natural gas exploration company, gave $2 million toward the $3 million river-taxi project.
"We keep saying in this city, and it's true, that the best is yet to come," said Larry Nichols, Devon's chairman and chief executive officer.
Regatta Park is within walking distance of the canal that runs through the city's Bricktown entertainment district. Former Mayor Ron Norick — who now is the chairman of the city's River Development Authority — said plans call a connection between the canal and river to be built within two years.
"This will be the thing to do in Oklahoma City for the rest of this year ... so we can show off what a great city we've created," current Mayor Mick Cornett said.
Both the river and canal are projects funded by the one-penny MAPS sales tax, which Oklahoma City voters approved in 1993. The river, once known as the North Canadian, was mostly dry before lock-and-dam systems were installed as part of the MAPS initiative that has spurred local development.
"This was one of the original MAPS projects, one of the nine," Norick said, gesturing toward the river. "It was such a huge project that it took a long time to develop. ... This is (taxpayers') '93 dollars still working."
Norick said city officials first seriously broached the idea of putting water into what is now the Oklahoma River during the early 1980s, but that few thought the idea would develop into what the river has become today.
The Chesapeake Boathouse near Regatta Park opened in January 2006, and three other boathouses are planned. The river since has been the site of college regattas, international rowing competitions and, last week, the U.S. Olympic trials for canoe/kayak.
It's been a longtime goal, he said, to find a way to connect the hotels in western Oklahoma City with downtown. He said city officials realized about 3 1/2 years ago that the river-cruiser idea would be a viable way to do so.
"We never did envision boats going up and down (the river)," Norick said. "I don't think any of us envisioned at that time what our downtown would look like."
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
