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Clark County’s dive rescue team to join sheriff’s office

By Jerzy Shedlock, Columbian Breaking News Reporter
Published: October 21, 2020, 6:24pm

The local dive rescue team is officially joining the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.

Clark County Dive Rescue Team will become part of the sheriff’s office Search and Rescue Unit, according to a news release. Both organizations’ boards have been working to finalize the transition over the past few weeks.

For nearly three decades, the dive team operated as its own privately funded nonprofit, working with multiple public safety agencies in the county and statewide as needed. Uniting the team with the sheriff’s office mirrors what most other agencies already have in place, according to a news release. It also will streamline operations and training and cut response times to incidents, according to the sheriff’s office.

The Search and Rescue Unit already has many specialty teams, such as rope teams, technical search teams, land and ground operations and a medical team, among others. Adding a dive team will further enhance its capabilities, the sheriff’s office said.

“This will give our team access to a vast and diverse knowledge base,” said Chastity Stern, operations manager for the dive team. “We look forward to serving Clark County in a greater capacity than we’ve been able to in the past.”

The dive team will maintain its nonprofit status for the short-term; it has some outstanding grants and funding sources that need to be closed out before it dissolves and joins the sheriff’s office, said public relations manager Mike Ranweiler.

Once that happens, funding for dive team expenses will come from the Search and Rescue Unit, which is 100 percent self-funded and accepts donations from the community. The unit receives less than $500 a year from the sheriff’s office budget for administrative expenses, Ranweiler said. The dive team members may work on grants and donations that can be earmarked for that unit, he said.

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Columbian Breaking News Reporter