The La Paz County Board of Supervisors on Jan. 6 approved funding through the Arizona State Parks State Lake Improvement Fund for upgrades to the La Paz County Sheriff’s Office River Patrol.

Sheriff (identified in the meeting as the county sheriff) told the board the award totals $164,339 and will finance two radios, two trauma kits, a FLIR thermal-imaging system and a submersible drone to support the county’s boating safety and dive-team search-and-rescue capabilities. The sheriff described the drone as controllable from a patrol boat and said staff expect it to change how search-and-rescue operations are conducted.

The board approved the grant by motion and voice vote; meeting remarks stated there is no local match required and no fiscal impact to county general fund was reported at the time of the vote.

Authority: the funding was described as provided through Arizona State Parks under the State Lake Improvement Fund (grant number referenced in the meeting as 25007). The sheriff said the award was applied for under the agency’s Swift Fund project.

Implementation notes: the sheriff asked for board approval to make the purchases and add the equipment to the river-patrol and dive-team programs.