GAINESVILLE – It may sound like the ingredients of a good country song: money for a truck and a dog, but it’s much more serious than that.
Tuesday evening the Gainesville City Council approved receipt of a pair of grants totaling $29,340. The funds will be used by the Gainesville Fire Department to enhance the Georgia Search and Rescue (GSAR) Task Force 1 team which operates out of Gainesville.
“As each of you know,” Gainesville City Manager Bryan Lackey told council members, “the Georgia Search and Rescue team for the region of northeast Georgia is housed here in Gainesville, and we’re happy to house and maintain that.”
“We’re glad that we can take advantage of these state monies that will be used not only here in Gainesville but around the region as needed; and hopefully it’s not needed,” Lackey added.
Task Force 1 is responsible for 24 counties in the northeastern portion of the state.
The money comes from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, is administered by the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA), and will be used to upgrade the GSAR truck and its equipment, and to continue operation of the GSAR K-9 search team.
The bulk of the funds ($25,840) will be used to provide new and needed equipment for the GSAR truck, to update software used in search and rescue operations, to buy a 13.5-foot inflatable watercraft with a 25-HP outboard engine, and to purchase rappelling supplies and hardware.
The remaining $3500 will be used for the maintenance of the GSAR TF1 K-9 program, one of only several canine programs statewide.
GFD Battalion Chief Dale Yarck heads the canine program for TF1. He says the program came into existence as a result of overhearing someone mention a canine program elsewhere. He said he was at a search and rescue training event years ago when he first heard mention of canine teams.
“We were out there training one day and I overheard somebody talking about the canine program, and I had always wanted to be a handler,” Yarck explained.
Yarck said he submitted the necessary paperwork with the state, underwent an extensive interview process and was accepted to the program. “It started in 2011 and I got Rango in 2012.”
Rango is the department’s German shepherd, one of two canines. The other is a black lab named Ferno. Yarck handles Rango and speaks of him with great affection.
“He’s technically mine now,” Yarck said proudly, explaining that Rango now lives with him and his family. “He used to go about everywhere with me, but I leave him home a little bit more now.”
Yarck proudly displayed a framed certificate showing what Rango won in a competition held in Oklahoma: the highest search and rescue K-9 rating possible.
When asked if Ferno and Rango have had many opportunities to showcase their skills locally, Yarck replied with a smile, “I say ‘Not as much as I like’ but that means there are people missing.”
Yarck said it was possible he and Rango might be called to assist in the search for a missing hiker on the Appalachian Trail near Dawsonville, but Rango’s specialty is more in line with searching through collapsed buildings rather than looking for people on the move.
“Any type of structural damage, that’s what he (Rango) is certified in, but we can do the wilderness search also,” Yarck said.
Yarck says Rango loves people and he encourages the public to come over and meet Rango when they are together in public. “He’s completely different than most police dogs; I want people petting Rango; he needs that interaction with people.”
