Pierce County flips, will buy Sheriff Department patrol boat

The Pierce County Council reversed course Tuesday and approved spending $730,000 for a new saltwater patrol and rescue boat for the Sheriff’s Department.

Three months ago, the council refused to add the boat to this year’s budget, even though $525,000 of the cost would come from a federal Homeland Security grant.

Council members cited sticker shock, saying they didn’t want to spend so much taxpayer money on a boat.

But Tuesday, some council members said they had changed their minds and concluded the cost was appropriate for the kind of vessel the Sheriff’s Department would get.

The boat would be larger, faster and have more advanced technology than The Reliance, the department’s last boat, which sank in July.

Council member Roger Bush, R-Frederickson, said he was at first skeptical but determined the cost is not “abnormally high.”

But council member Dan Roach, R-Bonney Lake, said he’s concerned about the cost of purchasing and operating the vessel, expenses he can’t defend to his constituents.

“I’m afraid if I voted for this I’d be walking through the produce aisle and get hit by a tomato,” he said.

Getting the boat is still not guaranteed because the federal grant has not been awarded.

The patrol vessel was the biggest ticket item in an additional $1.42 million in spending the council approved Tuesday, increasing the county budget to $803.3 million.

She sank docksideunder mysterious circumstances...

A docked Pierce County sheriff’s patrol boat sunk at the Narrows Marina in Tacoma this afternoon.

A family that had stopped at the marina to get gas noticed The Reliance was taking on water about 2 p.m. and called for help.

“The whole thing is under water. It sunk to the bottom,” sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said. “It was out yesterday working, and there were no problems at that point.”

He said the vessel hasn’t been used today and it’s not yet known why the boat began taking on water.

Sheriff’s divers are at the marina, 9001 S. 19th St., to assess the sunken boat. They plan to deploy flotation devices beneath the boat to bring it to the surface while Tacoma firefighters help pump water out of the vessel.

The boat was built in 1994 and cost $500,000. It is the department’s only patrol/rescue boat on the Puget Sound. The department’s other boats are used on lakes in unincorporated Pierce County.

Lets be sure they find who sank the last boat first.

The only boat Pierce County sheriff’s deputies used to patrol the Puget Sound sank Monday afternoon at the Narrows Marina in Tacoma.

The 32-foot vessel, named The Reliance, had patrolled the waters since it was built in 1994, taking down floating methamphetamine labs, checking on distressed boaters and rescuing swimmers.

It is not salvageable, officials said.

A Spokane family that had pulled into the marina for gas noticed just before 2 p.m. that the back of the boat was submerged. They called for help and clicked a series of photographs while watching the vessel sink.

“It was just a bad feeling to watch a boat worth all that money go down,” said Ingrid Kinder.

According to the family’s time-stamped pictures, which they shared with deputies, the boat disappeared beneath the water within 25 minutes. All that remained above the waterline was a series of bobbing antennae.

Sheriff’s officials have not yet determined what caused the boat to sink.

Deputies took it out on patrol Sunday, but The Reliance was not used Monday. It regularly docked at the marina in the 9000 block of South 19th Street.

Tacoma and Gig Harbor police are expected to take over patrols while the Sheriff’s Office figures out what to do about its lost boat.

“The important thing to know is there’s still going to be coverage on the Puget Sound,” sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said.

“There are still rescue capabilities.”

The $500,000 boat is insured, but details on the policy were not immediately available Monday.

Divers were brought out to assess the boat and help bring it to the surface. An underwater camera tracked their movements as two divers deployed flotation devices beneath the vessel.

The devices helped bring it to the surface so Tacoma firefighters could simultaneously pump water out.

The Reliance was an all-weather patrol boat powered by twin diesel engines and connected to outdrives so the boat could rise up in shallow water.

It had been upgraded and repowered over the years with new technology, including GPS navigation, forward looking infrared cameras, marine radios and radio directional finders.

The department commissioned it in December 1994, and the boat once patrolled portions of Pierce, King, Kitsap, Mason and Thurston counties.

Stacia Glenn: 253-597-8653
stacia.glenn@thenewstribune.com

This story was edited to correct that the boat was not pulled completely out of the water on Monday.

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Pierce County Sheriff’s office wants new patrol boat. Cost: $730,000

Would you believe a ‘corroded pipe’ ... Hmmm, i didn’t think so.

A corroded water intake pipe sank a Pierce County sheriff’s patrol boat docked at the Narrows Marina in Tacoma.

After an unsuccessful attempt Monday night to raise The Reliance, crews from Global Diving & Salvage were called in Tuesday.

They strapped airbags to the 32-foot vessel and lifted it while simultaneously pumping out water. The boat then was towed to shore, hoisted on a trailer and parked on the other side of the marina.

Crews discovered the cause of the problem as soon as the boat was partially raised from Puget Sound. Water began gushing back into the boat from a 2-inch metal pipe beneath The Reliance’s deck.

“It was kind of a battle to see how fast we could pump the water out and how fast it was coming in,” sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said.

The pipe is one of two used to cool the engine.

“It’s a part that shouldn’t have failed,” Troyer said.

Crews do regular maintenance on the boat, but the corrosion wouldn’t necessarily have been seen on the outside of the pipe, officials said.

An insurance company representative inspected the boat and said workers might be able to salvage the twin diesel engines, hull and other high-ticket parts.

Marine experts are expected to inspect the vessel today and salvage what they can.

It’s too early to know whether the boat will be more expensive to repair or replace, Troyer said.

“If we can salvage it, we sure will,” he said.

The Reliance is the only patrol/rescue boat deputies use on Puget Sound.

Tacoma and Gig Harbor police are on call for any problems on the waterway, but the Sheriff’s Department plans to move one of its patrol boats from a county lake while the damaged boat is assessed.

A family pulling in to get gas at the marina noticed the sinking boat. Within 25 minutes, everything was underwater except an antenna mast.

The Reliance has patrolled Puget Sound since it was commissioned in 1994. It is valued at $500,000, officials said.

The county spent $260,000 to have the boat built in 1994. It has spent more than $100,000 since to put in new engines and upgrade the electronics.

Stacia Glenn: 253-597-8653 stacia.glenn@thenewstribune. com

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