CAMDEN - Securing sufficient federal funding to operate and maintain the Ouachita/Black Navigation System has become a chore for state and local officials in South Arkansas and North Louisiana, and next month area officials will continue their efforts when asking that the $7.5 million now included in the president’s 2011 budget be increased by a minimum of $3.1 million.

Mayor Chris Claybaker, who is president of the Ouachita River Valley Association and chairman of the Camden Port Authority, recently returned from a visit with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the peop...