Newsmakers, September 29, 2016

Air Date:
Heard On Newsmakers
Denise Vujnovich, Brooke Pataska and Alex Mrotek
Denise Vujnovich, Brooke Pataska and Alex Mrotek Hope Kirwan/WPR

Operation River Watch-

Near the end of the first week of classes this fall at UW-La Crosse, college students strolled through Riverside Park in the dark looking for trouble, and they found it. A young man, dripping wet from head-to-toe ran towards them from the north end of the park near where the La Crosse River flows into the Mississippi River.

Police were alerted and the man was apprehended, unharmed and alive, choosing to take an alcohol awareness class rather than a public intoxication fine.

That outcome may not have been likely ten years ago before the start of Operation River Watch, a volunteer effort of students at Viterbo University, Western Technical College and UW-La Crosse, who scour Riverside Park on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, looking for intoxicated bargoers who have lost their way.

Operation River Watch formed in early October, 2006 after UW-La Crosse student Luke Homan became the eighth young man with a high blood alcohol level to drown in La Crosse area rivers since 1997 and the sixth young man to drown at or near Riverside Park. Since the program formed there have been other deaths of young men and women tied to drinking and drowning, but just one near Riverside Park, WTC student Craig Meyers, who was detected by security cameras walking alone near the river before going in several blocks south of the park.

The La Crosse Police Department has steadfastly maintained its investigation of the cases point to one cause, over-intoxication, despite theories of a serial-killer or other ideas from outside the department.

“I think that some people didn’t want to believe that alcohol was an issue in La Crosse,” said La Crosse Police Officer Brooke Pataska. “Maybe some people thought that ‘hey, this is someone who had a vendetta against college students, or male college students specifically.’”

The city of La Crosse has increased lighting and installed security cameras in Riverside Park, but Pataska said it’s the presence of Operation River Watch that she credits with helping slow the drowning incidents around Riverside Park.

In the first decade, Operation River Watch volunteers have made about 6,000 contacts with people in the park, and in the first month of the school year, they’ve encountered nearly 50 people. (not all contacts have been drinking alcohol)

UW-La Crosse student and Operation River Watch Director Alex Mrotek said the La Crosse community still has a problem with alcohol, but there’s no doubt Operation River Watch has made a big difference in preventing issues in Riverside Park.

“That’s always been the main question,” he said. “‘How do people actually end up in Riverside Park in the river?’ My personal belief is that intoxicated individuals that are not very coherent take the easiest path possible, so much like water they tend to run downhill. Everything leads down to the river. The dump off point is Riverside Park because that’s the most wide open area that downtown La Crosse offers.”

La Crosse police and higher education administrators have been contacted by several other college towns with nearby water that have had issues with drunken drownings, but to their knowledge, Operation River Watch remains a unique program.

WTC Vice President of Student Development and Success Denise Vujnovich, who has been involved in the program from its inception, said she was skeptical that students would keep the program going for this long given the frequent turnover of students, but Operation River Watch has become an important centerpiece for all of the programs the schools offer to discourage risky alcohol behavior.

“This is really a model program for all college campuses throughout the nation that have water in their vicinity and a student drinking culture in the area,” Vujnovich said. “There hasn’t been a drowning in 10 years at Riverside Park. They’re heroes.”

This is Oktoberfest weekend in La Crosse, a time when there are thousands of visitors who are both drinking and unfamiliar with the city’s downtown that features dozens of bars and is well known for its nightlife. Mrotek said they use the time to recruit new volunteers into the Operation River Watch program.

A first-ever fun run/walk is planned in October to draw attention to Operation River Walk and raise money for incentives that could lead to more college students volunteering for the program.

– John Davis

Episode Credits

  • Hope Kirwan Host
  • John Davis Producer
  • Brooke Pataska Guest
  • Denise Vujnovich Guest
  • Alex Mrotek Guest