License For Boat Needs To Be Updated

The holiday weekend gave many Valley boating enthusiasts a chance to get out on the water.

It also gave sheriff’s deputies the opportunity to remind boaters to update their registrations. Year 2000 registrations expired June 30.

“We try to be easy on the 4th of July weekend,” Deputy Joe Bonin told a boater on Newman Lake who said he’d left his registration at home on the desk.

“After that, we don’t have a grace period. People seem to be pretty good about getting boats registered,” said Bonin. “But on the 4th of July a lot of people seem to forget.”

Bonin had the department’s speedboat out on Newman Lake Saturday morning, checking registrations and life jackets.

The morning was quiet and cool with only a few boats out on the water. That doesn’t lessen the importance of patrols. Drownings can happen any time.

“It seems like we just can’t predict drownings around here,” Bonin said.

He tries to educate people about the necessity of life jackets. Especially with young children, it’s important not only that they’re wearing jackets, but that they fit.

Bonin said he kicked a dozen or more people off the Spokane River last weekend. They were floating in inner tubes and didn’t have life jackets.

The law states that anyone boating on the Spokane River in the unincorporated areas of the county must wear a personal flotation device.

“A lot of people who float on the Spokane River don’t have a clue,” Bonin said.

Deputies have two boats out patrolling the river and seven other lakes in Spokane County each weekend. They try to patrol Liberty Lake and Newman Lake at least once each week.

The boat patrol logs 40-50 hours per lake over the course of each boating season.

The deputies avoid lecturing boaters. They talk fishing and the weather.

“People are out here recreating. It’s a whole different atmosphere. People are more relaxed and it’s an easier type of contact.”