The Delta Queen could have a new home port in Kimmswick, Mo., a quaint tourist town with 158 residents on the Mississippi River half an hour's drive from St. Louis.
Now all the historic paddle-wheel steamboat needs is an act of Congress and $6 million to $7 million in repairs and it can start carrying passengers again on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.
Officials with the Delta Queen Steamboat Co. announced Thursday that they chose Kimmswick as the corporate headquarters and home port for the old steamboat, which spent six years as a floating boutique hotel at Chattanooga's Coolidge Park until Mayor Andy Berke sought to have it removed for obstructing the view there.
"[Kimmswick's] a great little historic steamboat town," said Cornel Martin, president and CEO of the Delta Queen Steamboat Co.
The Delta Queen will have a "a massive economic impact, creating more than 170 jobs locally and bringing in more than $36.4 million to the St. Louis region annually," said the steamboat company's news release. The Delta Queen will visit more than 80 ports, the release said, including New Orleans, Little Rock, Ark., Memphis, Nashville, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, St. Paul, Minn., Galveston, Tex., and Mobile, Ala.
At the moment, though, the Delta Queen - which can't operate under its own power - is moored in Houma, La., awaiting millions of dollars in repairs. The boat left Chattanooga on March 22 and was towed to Houma at a cost of $250,000, Martin said.
"Minimal maintenance has been done on the boat," said Phillip Johnson, director of marine operations for the Delta Queen Steamboat Company.
The Delta Queen had a hard winter before it left Chattanooga; high water levels in the Tennessee River on several occasions submerged its dock and gangway, and the hotel and restaurant was closed to the public until its departure.
Work was done in Houma to fix the cracks in the boat's roof and rain damage to the interior, Martin said. The plan is to tow the Delta Queen to a nearby dry dock so it can have major work done, company officials say, including replacement of its boilers, main steam line and main generator.
The Delta Queen has a steel hull that also needs attention in a dry dock, company officials say.
But the upper portion of the boat is all wood. That's why it hasn't given a cruise since 2008, when it lost an exemption to the 1966 Safety at Sea law that prohibits wooden ships of a certain size from carrying passengers on overnight trips.
That's according to U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican from Cincinnati, who in July 8 helped introduce legislation that would grant a 15-year exemption to the Delta Queen. Cincinnati was the Delta Queen's home from 1936 to 1986, and residents there recently voted it as the top city attraction - even though it's been gone for years.
"I remember being on the Delta Queen as a boy and am pleased to introduce this measure to keep it afloat for all Cincinnatians," Portman said when the legislation was introduced.
Portman's spokeswoman Christyn Lansing didn't respond to emails and call seeking comment about whether Portman would still support the exemption for the Delta Queen, now that it's home port will be in Kimmswick, Mo., about a week away from Cincinnati by steamboat cruise.
Martin remains hopeful that the Delta Queen will get the exemption.
"They want to see the boat calling on Cincinnati. There's still a lot of positives for Cincinnati," he said. "If we can get that [exemption] passed by the end of the year, the boat should be sailing by next summer."
Phil Stang, the mayor of Kimmswick, also thinks Congress will let the Delta Queen sail again.
"I have a very big belief that they will pass that bill that will allow this boat to do overnight cruises," Stang said.
He expects that about 70 percent of the steamboat's passengers will be tourists from overseas who want to see America by water.
"It will deliver the commodity that we need in the city of Kimmswick, which is people," Stang said. "When we are able to open up this city to people all over the planet we will thrive."
The steamboat company has raised about $90,000 toward the boat's repair, company officials said, including by selling souvenir pieces of the paddle-wheel that needs to be replaced, anyway.
Banks are willing to make loans to fund the majority of the $6 million to $7 million in repairs, Martin said, but "none of that's going to happen until we get the congressional legislation passed."
Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/MeetsForBusiness or twitter.com/meetforbusiness or 423-757-6651.