Flat bottom boat for Sheriffs on Rock Lake

Using a seldom-tapped source of state boating safety funding, Whitman County Sheriff’s office is the proud owner of a new 17-foot flat-bottom aluminum boat with a 70-horsepower engine.

“It’s a fisherman’s dream come true,” said Sheriff Brett Myers.

Myers said the boat will allow his department to patrol the tricky waters of Rock Lake and will aid in patrol operations on the Snake River.

“Rock Lake has always been a struggle for us,” Sheriff Myers said of the northwest county lake famed for its tricky rock spires.

Rock Lake is used heavily primarily during the spring. Boats often run afoul of the lake’s many rocks that crop up from the lake floor to just below the surface where they can’t be seen by boaters.

The gravel boat ramp at Rock Lake has made it nearly impossible for deputies to deploy the county’s large patrol boat.

Sheriff Myers said the new light boat can be easily launched into the lake and can be towed behind any of the department’s patrol units.

The larger boat, which was purchased with a grant from the Department of Homeland Security, requires a large truck to tow.

He added the new smaller boat will also be deployed on the Snake River next summer, when college students hit the beaches. A massive party last summer left the Ilia Sand Dunes a littered mess, prompting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to shut down access for Labor Day weekend.

Funding for the new patrol boat came from a rarely distributed slice of funding the state takes off boater licensing fees.

Sheriff Myers said the state has only issued funding from the license fees one other time since he joined the sheriff’s office in 1996.