Grant sought to buy patrol vessel

SANDPOINT — Bonner County is seeking a state grant to purchase another marine patrol vessel to shorten emergency response times on the southern portion of Lake Pend Oreille.

The county put in for the $90,000 Idaho Department of Parks & Recreation grant earlier this month and plans to put up a $60,000 match to purchase a $150,000 vessel that would be moored at Garfield Bay.

The new patrol boat would resolve a long-standing conundrum involving emergency response on the remote section of lake.

All but the southernmost tip of the 148-square-mile lake lies within Bonner County. Kootenai County has a vessel stationed at Bayview, although it is not used on a regular basis because all but a fraction of the lake is Bonner County’s jurisdiction, said Bonner County Marine Patrol supervisor Lt. Cary Kelly.

Bonner County has a boat docked in Hope, but high winds and rough water can mean extended response times during emergencies.

Kelly said it can take as long as two hours for a patrol vessel to reach the southern end when the weather is foul.

“There’s a big time lapse there,” said Kelly.

Various political and diplomatic efforts over the years to resolve the coverage issue have not panned out, which prompted Bonner County to seek the Waterways Improvement Fund grant from the state.

Kelly said the plan is to acquire a 30-foot patrol boat that will be stout enough to make good headway in adverse weather and capable of rescuing at least 10 people.

The $60,000 local match would come from unanticipated revenue from state boater registration fees collected in Bonner County. Kelly said the county underestimated the amount of revenue it expected to receive from the registrations.

The grant project has attracted some criticism from residents who use it as Exhibit A in their argument that government spending is out of control, but Kelly defends the proposal.

“We’ve had several close rescues and we’re getting more traffic down in the south part of the lake,” said Kelly.

Last season, the marine patrol rescued two kayakers caught in a storm near Maiden Rock and two teenage personal watercraft riders who ran out of gas in bad weather and with darkness falling.

“We finally got them and they were close to being hypothermic,” Kelly said of the teens.

The county expects to learn in May whether it will be awarded the grant.