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RIVER USE Jet boat company loses permit at state park Owner vows to keep operating on upper Rogue Comment By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Posted Oct. 23, 2015 at 6:09 PM By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Posted Oct. 23, 2015 at 6:09 PM » Social News WHITE CITY — An upper Rogue River jet boat excursion company has lost its permit to operate out of TouVelle State Park, but the owner vows it won't push his 10-passenger boat off the water despite acrimonious clashes with some river anglers there. "I fully expect to be in operation next year," says Taylor Grimes, whose Rogue Jet Boat Adventures has run scenic and interpretive trips on the upper Rogue the past five seasons. The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department opted Friday not to extend Grimes' one-year pilot-project permit to have a gangplank and customer check-in station at the state park off Table Rock Road, where the permit allowed him to run up to four 10-person trips a day. Parks officials asked for public comments on the operation, and they received an earful. A review of submitted comments shows that tour customers lauded the operation, but some other parkgoers, boaters and anglers decried the boat's presence on the stretch of the upper Rogue from Rattlesnake Rapids down to the Table Rocks area — a stretch of water upstream and downstream from TouVelle. Grimes' permit expires at the end of October. State parks officials Friday sent Grimes a letter stating they were ending the project after reviewing the comments and considering the possible longer-term effects on park resources. "People who took the ride enjoyed it, and we like to see people out enjoying the river, but it didn’t quite mesh well enough with the other visitors in and near the park for us to continue," state parks spokesman Chris Havel says. "We’ll keep looking for other new ways to get people outdoors, and are happy Jet Boat Adventures was willing to help us with the pilot." Grimes says he believes many dissenters mistakenly thought his operation was similar to, or would grow into, the larger Hellgate Excursion boats that operate out of Grants Pass. He also believes his operation was the target of a smear campaign by river groups such as the Medford-based Rogue Flyfishers who want him off that stretch of the Rogue. Grimes says he is "100 percent sure" the Rogue Flyfishers targeted his operation and called it a "selfish, uneducated river group" that does not acknowledge the upper Rogue is a multi-use river open to private and commercial jet boat operations, among many other users. Grimes claims anglers at times intentionally blocked passage in river stretches narrowed by low flows this year and others were "flipping us off" as his boat passed by. "That's the type of stuff we were dealing with this year," Grimes says. "We have the right to do what we do," he says. Comment letters from the Rogue Flyfishers to state parks detail wide displeasure among club members with Grimes' operation, and club member John MacDiarmid says it's Grimes who was the selfish one this summer on the upper Rogue. Other powerboaters almost always power down when motoring past wading anglers such as MacDiarmid to avoid throwing a heavy wake their way. "He always went by full-bore," MacDiarmid says. "When you're standing there trying to fish and that big wake comes in, it's treacherous. It was very disruptive." Like licensed commercial fishing guides, Grimes' operation is licensed through the Oregon State Marine Board, and he may pick up and drop off customers at TouVelle or any other state or county-owned boat ramp. However, parks rules forbid any business transactions or blocked public access without written permission, the letter states. Grimes says he does not know whether he will load and off-load customers next year at TouVelle or land somewhere else on that stretch of the Rogue, such as private ramps he used during the first two years of his operation. Regardless, he will not be limited to four daily trips next year as he was under the pilot project. "It may end up working out better in the long run for us if we don't have a concession out of TouVelle," Grimes says. Grimes says he operated under the permit for two months before shutting down in early September, and he operated the early part of his season under an extended conditional-use permit he used to run out of TouVelle in 2014. Under the permit, Grimes was required to pay state parks 3 percent of his gross receipts. Havel says Grimes paid a little more than $1,700 under the permit, putting the business' two-month gross at close to $67,000. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470 or [email protected] . Follow him at www.twitter.com/MTwriterFreeman . By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Posted Oct. 23, 2015 at 6:09 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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