Powell River Search and Rescue Society will be receiving qathet Regional District’s old plotter to assist with mapping during search and rescue operations.
At the Thursday, August 22, regional board meeting, directors voted to donate the regional district’s plotter, which is being replaced in September 2019, to the search and rescue society.
According to a staff report, the regional district purchased the plotter currently in use in March 2013. At that time, the regional board approved the donation of its old plotter to Powell River Search and Rescue Society. The plotter was used by search and rescue until it finally quit working and had to be discarded.
The regional district will be purchasing a new plotter in September, making the current plotter redundant, according to the staff report.
The report states that search and rescue performs a valuable public safety function throughout the regional district and the effective mapping of a given search area is key to performing efficient and successful searches.
The search and rescue society has expressed an interest in the plotter as it would allow members to install the plotter in its mobile command trailer, which is used to conduct search management tasks in closer proximity to the search area.