Donations help out dive team

The Flathead County Sheriff°¯s Office Dive Team has a new member that goes to depths of 250 feet, takes high-resolution photos, and swims at a pace of 2 mph without ever taking a breath.

It is a remote-operated vehicle that will help divers identify objects and make their work safer.

°°Its specialty will be in deep water,°± said dive team commander Jordan White, a sheriff°¯s deputy.

Human divers are limited to a few minutes°¯ time in deep water. The remote-operated vehicle can stay underwater without danger.

The camera can be rigged to video recording to document underwater crime scenes. It also carries a digital compass and tools for plucking items off the bottom of a lake or river bed.

°°We°¯ve been trying to figure out how to get one for the last three years,°± White said.

The equipment came, as so much does for the dive team, compliments of a donation.

Flathead Electric Cooperative°¯s Roundup for Safety donated about $10,000 for the underwater robot.

White officially formed the dive team in January 2004. Between 15 and 20 divers donate time, expertise and their own equipment. For the last three years, divers have averaged 30 days a year in training or actual dive missions.

The team almost immediately found that the community will help support it financially.

In May 2004, an anonymous donor at Swan Lake contributed five radios and 15 pagers for team members, White said. The equipment is worth about $15,000.

Next, Plum Creek came through with a grant to buy lift bags. They make it possible for the team to raise objects as heavy as 8,000 pounds from the bottom of a lake. That means they can be used to remove vehicles and °°almost anything from the bottom of a lake,°± White said.

Side-scan sonar equipment came from a federal program. The $8,000 gear uses sound waves on a horizontal plane to display a computer image of shapes under water. The equipment can scan up to 200 feet in a pass, imaging boats, drowning victims, vehicles or other objects.

°°It°¯s very technical,°± he said, and the team is still learning about it.

A $500 donation from Rest Haven Resort in Rexford produced an underwater metal detector, White said. It is carried by divers and can detect anything metallic, including jewelry, runs, knives and bullet casings.

He said he thinks the community supports the dive team because °°we do a job no one else would really want to do. They°¯re sympathetic to our needs.°±

People also appreciate that divers provide thousands of dollars°¯ worth of their own equipment, White said.

He hopes to be able to help his volunteers replace some of their equipment. There is no uniformity of equipment now.

White also hopes to be able to buy secondary air tanks for his divers and additional face masks with communication equipment.

°°We need at least five more,°± he said.

The other item on his wish list is more instructional aids. The team is working to become certified as a dive instruction agency.

Anyone with funding ideas or donations can contact White at 758-5597.

Reporter Chery Sabol may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at csabol@dailyinterlake.com