Courtesy Photo Members of the Alpena County Sheriffs’ Office patrol an Alpena-area waterway in this photo provided by the department. Officials hope to seek a Michigan Department of Natural Resources grant to help fund water patrols.

ALPENA –The summer boating season may seem a long time off because of the amount of snow and ice the area has endured the last several weeks, but the Alpena County Sheriff’s Office is already taking steps to ensure people enjoying our area lakes and rivers will do so safely.

At Wednesday’s meeting of the Alpena County Board of Commissioners Finance Committee, Sgt. J.P. Ritter requested that commissioners allow him to apply for a $13,615 Michigan Department of Natural Resource Marine Safety Grant. The county typically is a recipient of the grant, in full or part, and uses it for patrols on area waters.

Ritter said the grant, if approved, would cover the cost of of having a deputy patrol the inland lakes and rivers in the county. He said there is no match required for the county, and being able to provide the patrol makes sure boaters are following the law and keeps them safe.

“The money we get is broke up between wages, benefits, fuel and maintenance,” Ritter said. “Having this allows us to be proactive, be out there and visible, because that kind of slows things down and (makes boaters) stay within the limits of the law.”

Deputies are on the lookout for various activities while on patrol, Ritter said. He said that, most of the time, infractions are small ones, but there are also more serious offenses such as driving a boat or other watercraft while under the influence of alcohol.

“We see a lot of registration violations and people operating waverunners without the proper endorsement or not of a legal age,” he said. “Even young adults in their early 20s need to take a boaters’ safety class, and we are seeing they haven’t. Those are just a few of the things we are seeing.”

While the DNR grant allows the county to patrol inland bodies off water, it also has utilized a federal grant that is geared toward Lake Huron.

Ritter said the county has received Operation Stonegarden grants from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to help cover the cost of patrols and equipment purchases.

Over the years, the Sheriff’s Office has dramatically beefed up its marine patrol and response capacities. It has created and implemented a dive team and purchased a retired U.S. Coast Guard boat, a pair of new outboard motors for the boat. Because of that, deputies have been able to respond on several occasions to emergencies on the lakes and have saved lives.

The department’s marine patrol division is also on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week to respond to emergencies.

The Finance Committee voted in favor of having the grant application submitted, but it will be up to the full Board of Commissioners to approve the request during its meeting on Feb. 26.

Steve Schulwitz can be reached at 989-358-5689 at sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ss_alpeanews.com.