At the Lawrence County Commissioners meeting on July 29, 2025, Larry Davis, vice president of the Lawrence County Firefighter Association, told commissioners the county’s search-and-rescue (SAR) team has expanded training and equipment but still needs a reliable alerting system. "All parties were found safe," Davis said about recent callouts for missing children and a lost adult hiker.
The SAR team reported two major recent training courses — a low-angle rope-rescue course and a canine-training course — and monthly training that covers search basics, communications, fire-starting, grid searches and shelter building. Davis said the team received a donated Zodiac boat that "will be in service soon" and acquired rope gear for low-angle rescues.
Davis identified a shortfall in how the team is alerted to incidents and said the county 911 coordinator has been working on a solution but "we just haven't reached that stage yet." He also said association members are exploring a brush-apparatus model used by a neighboring county and that some departments in Gallia and Soda counties have asked to join county training events.
Attendance figures offered to commissioners included two SAR courses with about 19 and 25 participants, and a county association fire school earlier in the year that drew about 85 people and seven courses. Davis described the SAR team as a multi-agency group including firefighters, deputies and EMS personnel and credited improved interagency cooperation for quicker on-scene responses.
Commissioners thanked the presenters for the update and for volunteer leadership; no formal action or funding request was recorded in the meeting minutes for the SAR team.