Ogdensburg – Two county highway workers helped rescue two men whose boat capsized in the Ogdensburg millpond on County Road E.
Gaylen Boutwell and Ken Jaeger were making a delivery of equipment to the highway shop in Helvetia when they noticed what appeared to be an empty boat. Then they saw two older men in the water.
“We backed up and hollered if they needed help. They said they did,” Boutwell said.
“I immediately called 911 on my cell phone,” Jaeger said. “Then we began running up and down the shore looking for a boat.”
Jaeger said the two men were wearing life jackets, but the oldest man began yelling help.
A neighbor saw the county workers and offered the use of his paddle boat, which was in the garage. They loaded the boat onto the back of the county truck and drove it to the shore. The neighbor and Boutwell went out to the canoe, which had capsized by this time. However, there was no room on the paddle boat to bring the two men out of the water.
“We held onto to them until the Ogdensburg Fire Department came out with their boat,” Boutwell said.
The Ogdensburg Fire Department was able to bring the men ashore.