Snakes, guns, knives and naked fans. Water Follies exec says it’s been a wild 46 years

The Tri-Cities Water Follies has been Chuck Keltch’s hobby for 46 years.

He’s put in irrigation pipes, pulled weeds, drove a float and served as president of the executive board — twice.

“I have always liked the work. It doesn’t matter what the work was,” he said. “It was just the pleasure of doing it and having someone come up to me and say, ‘Thanks for the boat races.’”

Keltch is a fixture on the Pasco side of the Columbia River event as he works in Wade Park, which was named after his wife, Carol’s, parents. It’s a park where he helped install the irrigation and found ways to keep the race available to anyone coming to see it.

Friday was his first visit in 20 years to the Kennewick side for Water Follies events, he joked.

He’s stepping down from the board after this year’s Follies.

“I turned 80 this year, and I thought it was maybe time to let the children do the work,” he said.

Keltch’s first exposure to unlimited hydroplane racing came during a family trip to Seattle’s SeaFair in 1952.

The next year his father, then living in Yakima, bought a television to watch the races. When the races came to the Tri-Cities 52 years ago, Keltch made sure to go, but he didn’t start volunteering until Ken Mauer talked to him in 1972.

Keltch and his father owned a construction firm, which kept them busy in the winter and with some free time in the summer. Water Follies organizers put him to work pumping out flooded areas along the shoreline.

“I pumped more polywogs than I did water,” he said. “I got them all dried up like they wanted.”

Then the next year he joined the board of directors.

Along with lending equipment from his construction company and working on the Pasco side, the Keltches spent 16 years taking the Water Follies float to parades around the Northwest.

“We did somewhere between 18 and 22 parades a year,” he said.

His hobby came with perks, though, including the chance to meet the racing teams.

The biggest change he’s seen is the transformation to a family-friendly event. In the old days, people brought as much alcohol as they could carry.

“They had everything from wheelbarrows to wagons and backpacks. ...Then the year when the girls were dancing naked on top of the motor homes, that was the year we decided we had enough,” he said. “It was amazing the things they got when they checked people’s cars — snakes, guns and knives.”

While he may be leaving the executive board, his son, John Keltch, and daughter-in-law, Barb, continue to volunteer.

He’s not sure what he’ll do when the races roll around next year.

“I may have to leave town on this weekend,” he said. “You have to leave just so you won’t screw up what they did.”