New boat on order for sheriff’s marine patrol

A new boat that will be purchased with funds from an unnamed benefactor has been ordered for the Garland County Sheriff’s Department’s marine patrol, County Judge Darryl Mahoney said.

The benefactor, which the county said has asked to remain anonymous, donated $125,000 to the sheriff’s department’s boating safety fund. The department said part of the funds will purchase a new 23-foot Xpress Bay Boat that will be deployed on Lake Hamilton by the end of the summer.

Xpress Boats are manufactured locally at the company’s plant in the county’s industrial park.

“This will probably be the first new boat the marine patrol has had,” Mahoney

said. “The remainder of the summer we’re going to have some adequate equipment to safely service the lake.”

It will replace the patrol’s 1999 Boston Whaler Outrage. Earlier this week, the Garland County Quorum Court appropriated $27,066 from the donation to buy a 2020 Yamaha XXL 300 horsepower motor, steel prop, controls, gauges and installation for the patrol’s 2004 Outrage.

Futrell Marine was awarded the bid for the engine package and to sell and service the Xpress Bay Boat that’s on order. Mahoney said the quorum court will appropriate funds for the new boat next month.

The two Boston Whalers patrolled the lake last year. The sheriff’s department said both have had mechanical problems this year, temporarily pressing the patrol’s 2000 Cobia into service.

The $125,000 donation is the first substantial private-sector support the patrol has received since the January 2014 dissolution of the Lake Hamilton Safe Boating Association. The nonprofit raised money for the patrol and donated equipment, including the two Boston

Whalers and the 2004 Baja the county sold at its surplus auction in July.

The department spent more than $36,000 maintaining the patrol’s fleet from 2014 to 2019, according to invoice and purchase orders the department provided earlier this year in response to a public records request. Responsive materials didn’t include invoices from recent years related to winterizing the boats, as the department assumed responsibility for storing the boats a few years ago.

The department has been telling the quorum court for several years that flat funding and escalating costs have made it difficult for the patrol to maintain its presence on the lake.