<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2A8YM6_0vlhXkxl00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2A8YM6_0vlhXkxl00" width="875" height="529" ><figcaption>The fishing pier at Lake Columbia's South Shore Landing.</figcaption></figure>The Columbia County Quorum Court, in a special called meeting, approved the purchase of an emergency and rescue and recovery boat to be used primarily on Lake Columbia by the Sheriff’s Office.The approval took an emergency ordinance, but the watercraft purchased by the county was already being used and belonged to Columbia County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jerry Reich, the ordinance read.County Judge Doug Fields said after the meeting that taking ownership of the South Fork Flat Bottom Dive Boat was basically a formality after Reich decided he wanted to sell it. A big advantage of getting this boat is that Reich included all the equipment which comes with the boat, Fields said.“Well Jerry bought this boat and built this boat for this purpose because he is a master diver,” Fields said. “He will still be a diver, but he doesn’t want to have this equipment anymore. The price of $18,500 is really good considering what all you are getting. It has less than 100 hours which are called engine hours and are like miles on a car.”Columbia Sheriff Leroy Martin, who has been a part of the law enforcement community for almost 30 years and was elected as sheriff in November 2022, said the county has had a couple of drownings in the past two years. Previously, Columbia County had to rely on Ouachita County to borrow equipment but now Columbia County has the same equipment. Columbia County has also had to work with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission for sonar equipment needed to see victims down in the water in the past.“With this boat, we got life jackets, a trolling motor, and sonar equipment,” Martin said. “If we would have bought a brand new boat, it would have been at least $20,000 without all this equipment.”Martin said Reich’s boat allows five to six officers to work a rescue mission and the boat previously used by the county only allowed two people to go on a mission. Sometimes if there are several victims, or a victim is a person of a larger size, it may take a larger boat and more people to save them, Martin explained.Martin said he wished former Columbia County Deputy Sheriff Freddie Sargent, 62, who drowned September 19, 2019 on Lake Columbia, would have had the benefit of the boat being in use.Sargent had been fishing with another man, Willie Brownlee of Magnolia, when the boat’s bilge pump failed and that the boat began to rapidly take on water. The boat overturned and sank, leaving both men in the water.People in another boat reported the accident. The Sheriff’s Office rescue boat was obtained, and deputies went to the scene.Rescuers were not able to get Brownlee into a boat, so he was secured and towed to Maurice Lewis Landing. He was taken to Magnolia Regional Medical Center by the Columbia County Ambulance Service.“Freddie was in the water, not breathing and he was not responsive. They got him in the boat, and they did CPR in the boat to the shore,” McWilliams said. Sargent was declared dead at MRMC.</div></body>

Mountain View, CA

NewsBreak

Quorum Court approves purchase of rescue and recovery boat for Sheriff's Office

The Columbia County Quorum Court, in a special called meeting, approved the purchase of an emergency and rescue and recovery boat to be used primarily on Lake Columbia by the Sheriff’s Office. The approval took an emergency ordinance, but the watercraft purchased by the county was already being used...