The Jefferson County Council voted Sept. 22 to amend a bill that would impose a swimming and wading ban at Rockford Park in House Springs before the measure could be finally passed, meaning the final vote has been delayed, probably until the next regular council meeting.
Councilman Bob Tullock (District 7, House Springs) proposed the amendment, and the council voted 4-3 to amend the bill and to give the bill preliminary approval, with Councilmen Brian Haskins (District 1, High Ridge), Charles Groeteke (District 4, Barnhart) and Scott Seek (District 5, Festus) voting against it.
The council cannot pass a bill at the same meeting it’s amended, so the final vote on the swimming ban will most likely be taken at the Oct. 14 council meeting, which will be at 6:30 p.m. at the Jefferson County Administrative Office, 729 Maple St., in Hillsboro.
Tullock’s amendment added a clarification to the bill, allowing first responders permission to use Rockford Park’s river access for training purposes, such as water rescues.
The council approved the swimming and wading ban 6-1 in a preliminary vote on Sept. 8, with Groeteke voting against the measure. The ban includes a sunset clause, imposed by Tullock, with the ban to be lifted on April 30, 2026, unless the council votes to renew it.
The county-owned park has been the site of at least seven drownings in the last decade. Strong and swift currents directly downriver of a low-head dam near the park’s beach often take swimmers by surprise, authorities have said, dragging them underwater in a whirlpool-like pattern.
The most recent incident occurred on June 28, when a 44-year-old man from Overland drowned in the Big River. Before rescue crews arrived, a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office deputy had already jumped into the water, attempting to locate and rescue the man.
County Counselor Jalesia F.M. Kuenzel said Parks and Recreation Department Director Tim Pigg brought a concern about the proposed ban to her attention, saying that many emergency first responders schedule trainings on the Big River at Rockford Park throughout the year and a ban on swimming and wading could conflict with those scheduled trainings, Kuenzel said.
“First responders train there from all different parts of Missouri,” she said at the Sept. 22 meeting. “We have one scheduled for Wednesday (Sept. 24), Oct. 10, 11, 12 and 13. This (amendment) is making it clear that that is an exception to the rule.”
Haskins, who has tried for three years to get legislation passed banning swimming and wading at the park, called the amendment an unnecessary delay to the passage of the ban.
The council came close in March 2024, when it voted to change the name of the park from Rockford Beach to Rockford Park and to ban alcohol and marijuana, in the hopes of preventing future drownings. But, Tullock introduced an amendment to the bill before the final vote, taking out the swimming and wading ban.
“Here we are,” Haskins said. “We’ve had three drownings while my bill has been picked apart repeatedly. (Earlier in the summer), a man took his two sons to Rockford Park, went swimming for about an hour. The deputies had someone come to them and say, ‘A man is screaming for help.’ His boys were calling for help. The deputy is not trained in water rescue; he’s not a lifeguard, nor are the people that formed the human chain to try and save this man, but he was caught in a whirlpool formed by a particularly hazardous combination of fast current, the river squeezed between the dam and the bluffs. (The onlookers) just watched the man go around in a circle and drown.
“We have failed to act when we’ve had a chance, and that has affected those families for the rest of their lives.”
‘Muddy the water’
Seek, who voted no on the new version of the bill, said he couldn’t understand the need for the amendment. While working for the Adair County Ambulance District as a paramedic, he said he participated in similar training scenarios as those conducted at Rockford Park.
“No one stopped us,” he said. “There wasn’t any kind of an ordinance that stopped us from doing our job. (First responders) aren’t wading in for fun. I’m curious as to why we need the amendment in the first place.”
Kuenzel said the original language of the ban did not discriminate between having fun on the river or wading in to rescue a victim. Tullock’s amendment adds clarification, she said.
Crow, who initially voted against the amendment but ultimately voted in favor of the new version of the bill, said he was concerned the amendment would “muddy the water,” instead of providing clarification.
“Pun intended,” he said. “What if we have someone from the Missouri Department of Conservation who wants to work on the Big River? If we’re making a special amendment for first responders, if these other government agencies need to do work at the Big River and need that access point, do we need to make an amendment for them as well?”
State government entities have the authority to enter the county’s waterways without the county’s permission, Kuenzel said.
“If (the Department of Conservation) is coming in to do sampling or something like that, that’s going to trump this ordinance anyway,” she said.
Arons, who voted in favor of the amended bill, said the change was a simple matter of clarification.
“Somebody is going to say, ‘Well, (first responders) are in the water, why can’t I go in?’” she said. “The more clarification, the better.”