(Rock Rapids) (KIWA, KSOU)– The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office has a new tool to assist in water rescues and flood events.
Deputy Alex Waagmeester says they were awarded a grant from the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation that allowed them to purchase a 2026 Crestliner boat and trailer, along with some electronic equipment…
“We kind of started looking into this a couple of years ago, trying to see what it takes to get a grant, and here this last summer Sheriff Hilt and I discovered the Firehouse Public Safety Foundation Grant and applied to that and found out a couple months later that we ended up being selected as a winner.”
Deputy Waagmeester says the boat is designed to be used for a variety of purposes…
“I’m going to call it more of a utility boat than specifically a rescue boat. It’s going to be like a flat-bottom john boat, 18 and-a-half feet. What’s kind of unique about this is we’re going to make it kind of for our own intensive purposes is, it’s got what’s called a tunnel hull and so the motor drive or the jet drive motor which is going to allow it to get into shallower water for us rather than just like a regular fishing boat or a boat that you would pull like skis or a tube with. So we kind of made it special that way. Yeah, it can be used for rescue applications but really what we are getting at is for it to be able to get into shallower water such as what we would need to evacuate people during a flood again.”
Deputy Wagmeester adds they will likely cross-train with county rescue, EMS and firefighters so they can all utilize the watercraft.
(Courtesy Community First Broadcasting stations KIWA in Sheldon and KSOU in Sioux Center)
