Good things
come to those who wake, er wait. At least that's the hope of three partners who've
survived waves of bureaucrats and construction delays to see a dream to the end.
The imminent reopening of the floating No Wake Cafe and the introduction of a new bed and breakfast on a restored Mississippi tugboat has been delayed and now will take place at a temporary mooring site near the Harriet Island park shelter. But that hasn't deterred Penny Miller, Tom Welna and Anne Reeves as they look forward to regaining old customers and attracting new ones sharing the same love of the river.
"It's the No Wake, only better," says Miller, as she looks around the 75-seat restaurant which will offer clear views of the Mississippi and a year-round operation. Expanded kitchen space should also allow for banquet and catering service operations. "I'm really excited, this still feels enough like the old cafe and yet adds so much more."
Included will be the four-bedroom Covington Inn, which makes up the rest of the boat--along with caretaker's quarters. Highlights include natural woodworking and brass rails throughout, a pilothouse suite that includes its own deck and old navigational equipment display, and of course beautiful views of the Mississippi.
"Suddenly all the pieces are falling together," said Welna. "We're sort of at the panic stage where you wonder if you've plugged all the holes and filled all the gaps."
The restoration is a product of two years hard work by team members headed by Welna, a former Saint Paul Deputy Mayor turned grease monkey/welder/carpenter, whose vision began with a discovery of a rusting, leaky tugboat in the Mississippi bayous. Acquiring the Covington, built in 1946 for "less than the price of a used car," he had it towed upriver and went to work.
"I've always thought that people would like to live on the river without owning property," said Welna, a longtime resident of the Harriet Island boat community, as is Miller. "That's something the Cafe has also shown -- that people want to be near the water."
With blowtorch in hand, Welna personally removed an estimated 20 to 30 tons of steel in the form of unneeded pipes, tanks, flooring and walls. Even more problematic was the long process of securing funding and approvals for the $306,000, 400,000 sq. ft. project. From getting approval for a private loan, through a federal Small Business Administration loan, and $35,000 in assistance from the City of Saint Paul, the trio of Covington owners has run a gauntlet of delays while they faithfully continued work on the boat.
"It's been a long wait. I've had a lot of time to learn about the salvage business and how government agencies work," said Welna, who also used the time to stockpile parts and material for the project in a barge graciously provided by Upper River Services." I wish I'd done this before I worked in the Mayor's Office (under Jim Scheibel) just in terms of learning the things it takes to get a business going."
Most recently, construction delays on the Harriet Island public dock and boom have held up the restaurant / bed & breakfast's anticipated opening since July 1. A series of complex, and sometimes heated, negotiations with city Parks and Recreation staff and Riverfront Dev. Corp. officials eventually resulted in a compromise allowing the Covington's temporary mooring on Harriet Island.
"It's too bad we've missed so much time and it's costing us both money," said Welna." It's important to have the restaurant open at least while the weather's nice. People miss it and we don't want them to get out of the habit."
His disappointment doesn't diminish Welna's longterm optimism for the project or riverfront development, however.
"That's why we were the first privately-financed project, he said. We plan to be around for a long time." Meanwhile No Wake staff have learned new trades in an attempt to cut costs and keep them employed while final work on the restaurant, and then the bed & breakfast, is completed. "We've reformed the cooks and they're now working with hammers and screwdrivers", said Miller, laughing." It's been a hardship sometimes. But we're trying to remember this is not a race to the finish line. It's a race to the starting line.