The Jon Anderson White charter boat may have cruised the flood-prone Des Moines River for the last time.

Capt. Michael LaValle of Port of Des Moines LLC, who runs the 83-passenger craft when he’s not busy being general manager of the Des Moines Embassy Club, said he is in negotiations to move the Jon Anderson White to 232-acre Blue Heron Lake in Raccoon River Park in West Des Moines. There, the boat would offer both educational nature excursions aimed at kids, and the traditional dinner cruises complete with banjo music.

LaValle said he met with parks officials, Mayor Steven Gaer and City Manager Tom Hadden in recent weeks, and the city has agreed to review the idea.  This is the second time LaValle has attempted the move; West Des Moines park officials denied a similar request from LaValle eight years ago.

Gary Scott, the suburb’s parks and recreation director, said city boards and the West Des Moines City Council would have to approve a rezoning and change in the city’s master plan for the project to proceed with contract negotiations. Other developers would have to be offered a chance to make competing proposals. And the city wants to gather public comments before acting on the proposal.

Terms are undecided, but often cities get a percentage of sales in this type of agreement. That would be detailed in the request for proposals, if the city decides to move to that stage.

In addition, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, which owns the proposed docking area and leases it to the city, may have to approve the project, Scott said. The boat would launch from an area between a fishing pier and the boat ramps on the west side of the park.

The West Des Moines Parks and Recreation Advisory Board is expected to consider the project May 21.

The main reason for the move, LaValle said: the Des Moines River runs harder than it used to. With a 14-foot swing in levels and frequent flooding, half of the scheduled cruises in a typical season were cancelled,  as raging waters washed huge trees and other debris down the river. It wasn’t safe to cruise.

“The river has changed,” LaValle said. “We can’t run when the water is high. When the river floods, here comes a cottonwood tree.”

It would probably be summer 2016 before the boat moved, unless the suburb wanted a trial run later this year, LaValle said. He’s still entertaining other offers, and has talked informally about possibilities at the Iowa Great Lakes, Saylorville Lake, at Honey Creek Resort State Park at Rathbun Lake. “We are taking offers,” LaValle said.

LaValle said he is not sure if the boat will operate on the Des Moines River this year. He spent $30,000 to take it out of the water last year for a required Coast Guard inspection, and decided it was a good time to think about the future.

Operating on a lake, with more predictable conditions, could allow LaValle to add April and May cruises to the usual Memorial Day to Halloween river cruising season, he added.

LaValle said he does not want to leave the Des Moines River entirely, after three decades of cruising there. LaValle said he has some ideas on how to serve downtown Des Moines with a different boat or other watercraft, but he’s not ready to discuss details.