Digital Extra

Hundreds of state and federal employees and privately hired contractors have come to South County to aid in the beached barge salvage, the environmental cleanup and the investigation into the accident, creating an economic boomlet in the local tourist and marina trade.

The tourist industry has geared up to take care of a different sort of out-of-towner, one who wears coveralls instead of a bikini, and lugs booms instead of surfboards.

While these South County guests are a bit less fun-loving than the average summer tourist, they spend. They rent hotel rooms, drink beer and buy equipment from marina owners anxious about the summer season and eager to make a few dollars while they still can.

Most recognize the irony.

Al Conti's five lobster boats are in port, but his shop -- the Snug Harbor Marina -- is hopping. His dock is a staging area for one of the environmental cleanup companies, and the Conti family has opened the marina's shop to keep the men warm between trips on the water.

Though he has fielded a couple of calls from worried would-be participants in his regionally famous fishing tournaments, Conti says he's optimistic that his summer contests will be business as usual.

For now he's running an unusual business.

"I've become a procurement agent for the crew," he said. "They needed boots, gloves and warm clothing."

Conti estimates he's sold three or four dozen pairs of insulated gloves, 12 charts of Point Judith Pond, and about 400 gallons of boat fuel in the last few days. He's also sold an engine, ropes, anchors and given away gallons of hot coffee.

"We want to do what we can to make the cleanup effort run smoothly," said Conti.

The Holiday Inn is booked solid. So are the Village and the Pier House Inns. The pool tables at Champion's haven't weathered as much use since Labor Day. Lunch business has doubled at Charley O's and they've called in extra waitresses to handle the dinner crowds. At the Dutch Inn, even the hotel's indoor pool area -- called the Cabana -- has been rented as a briefing room for the media.

More than a dozen lobstermen, now unable to sell their harvest, have hired on with the salvage and cleanup companies, hoping to recover money lost because of the Health Department's shutdown of their business.

But business owners, lobstermen and sandwich makers alike say anything they make in what might be a seven-day or seven-month boom is little compared to what they may have lost.

Capt. Doug Reitz's logo is a hot pepper. His card reads: Fishing Charters -- Point Judith, Rhode Island -- Where the Fishing is HOT"

So far, two customers have called to cancel their spring trips. Reitz says he understands.

"Where would you rather go, a place where there's been an oil spill or nearby Cape Cod? You only get one vacation a year. Why run the risk?" he asks.

Outside the crisis-response center at the Dutch Inn, it's not Jeeps and convertibles that hem the one-way thoroughfare through Galilee, but tractor-trailer rigs and government vans.

At lunchtime yesterday, bands of men prowled the streets in search of food. Several found their way into Galilee Grocery and Provisions.

Joan Pearson, whose brother owns the shop, says it's almost like summer. But Pearson is more concerned about the fishermen whose patronage sustain the business all year long than any disaster windfall she and her brother might gain.

"If there is a business boom, temporary or otherwise, it's a terrible way to make money,," she said, darting behind the deli counter to make sandwiches for part of a salvage crew.