Miami County officials told commissioners they plan to rebuild the county’s surface-water rescue capability and asked to use existing water-rescue funds to outfit trained technicians after the county’s dive team was discontinued.

Mark Whalen, rural fire coordinator, said the county currently has two trained technicians at the Osawatomie station and that there is interest across departments: “10 firefighters in Osawatomie that are interested, another 4 in Fontana, another 10 in Lewisburg, and 5 in Paola,” he said. Whalen said the county is planning to invite the University of Kansas fire service to run a free 16‑hour training class in the spring.

Whalen proposed initially equipping six trained responders — he said there are six fully trained, full‑time water-rescue technicians in Johnson County who are willing to participate — and estimated outfitting costs at roughly $2,000 to $3,000 per person depending on equipment choices. He said an ideal roster would be about 20 technicians distributed across the county to ensure ground and boat crews and rope teams are available for rescues.

Whalen confirmed the county discontinued its dive team and sold dive gear; surface-water rescue would remain the county’s focus, with Overland Park Police Department’s dive team and Anderson County’s dive team available as automatic backups for incidents requiring divers. Whalen also said the county runs about a dozen water rescues a year in Miami County Fire District 1.

When asked about funding, a staff member (Lucas) was asked to provide exact fund balances; the transcript includes an unclear statement about fund balance. Whalen said he would scale the outfitting: “If we could have a total of 20 on the team, that would be a good number distributed to the county,” and he suggested equipping six this year and training additional technicians in subsequent classes. No formal action or vote was taken; staff indicated they can use water-rescue budget lines and next-year budget allocations as needed and will return with a detailed plan.

Next steps: staff will prepare a budget and procurement plan to equip initial technicians and present options for scaling the team and training schedule at a future meeting.