Grant sought for side-scan sonar setup
The Bonner County Sheriff's Dive Team conducts a search for a scuba diver who went missing in Lake Pend Oreille earlier this month.
(Photo courtesy BONNER COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE)
SANDPOINT — The Bonner County Sheriff's Office is seeking a state grant to purchase side-scan sonar equipment for use in underwater searches.
Sheriff Daryl Wheeler is seeking an Idaho Department of Parks & Recreation waterways improvement fund grant for a towable side-scan sonar. The cost of the grant has not been disclosed, although the county's match would be $16,000, according to a board of Bonner County commissioners' agenda.
Commissioners are scheduled to take up to the grant request on Tuesday.
The grant request comes a month after a scuba diver suffered a heart attack and drowned in Lake Pend Oreille near Trestle Creek. The diver, whose name has not been released, was found after a six-day search by dive teams and a side-scan sonar-equipped vessel from the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office.
It was not clear Friday whether the grant request was in the works prior to the scuba diver's death.