MENASHA — Consider Bill Greenwood a gatekeeper.
As one of the tenders who man the Fox River lock here, he is the connection for boaters between two busy lakes.
Greenwood, 19, of Appleton, enjoys maneuvering the hand-operated lock despite the sometimes grueling work.
“During the week it’s a real leisurely job. You’ve got to cut lawn and make sure it stays tidy and everything looks good,” said Greenwood, a college student in his first season as a full-time lock tender. “But on the weekend, when you’re bookin’ and pounding boats through the locks, you get pretty tired.”
The Menasha lock, one of three operating on the 17-lock system from Lake Winnebago to Green Bay, is the crucial link for boaters between Winnebago and Little Lake Butte des Morts.
With the dry, hot summer providing perfect boating weather and the recent opening of the Fox Cities Trestle-Friendship Trail, the lock site, on the west end of Broad Street, has never been busier.
“A lot of people from the area didn’t even know the lock existed,” Greenwood said. “People are really starting to take interest. Now, the general public has a little more access.”
In the first three months of the May-October season, tenders here operated the lock 1,199 times, moving 1,855 boats and 7,810 people through.
On a hot weekend day, Menasha lock tenders might do 30-40 so-called lockages, which take up to 10-15 minutes each depending on the number of boats and corresponding paperwork.
“Every weekend we were bookin’ pretty much starting in mid-June,” Greenwood said.
A lock tender’s primary responsibility is to navigate boats through the lock using valves and gates. Everything is done by hand or gravity, with no electric motors.
Pulling levers to open valves and turning a tripod to open and close the massive steel gates keep a tender hopping.
“The more in shape or physically fit you are the easier the job will be,” Greenwood said.
During downtime, tenders also give tours to students, Scouts and seniors.
“They’re one of the few guys out there working on weekends,” said Dennis Arnoldussen, operations manager for the Fox River Navigational System Authority who supervises eight full-time and two part-time tenders at the three Fox locks, in Menasha, DePere and Kaukauna.
Arnoldussen, who has operated all 17 locks on the system at one time or another, said each one is 33 feet wide and 144 feet long but still unique.
“They’re similar, but each one is different,” he said. “The parts aren’t interchangeable.”
The lock tender’s role is unique as well.
Said Greenwood: “It’s the best summer job I’ve ever had.”
