LA GRANDE — Union County Search and Rescue team members will soon have more tools to help them rescue and transport injured individuals out of hard-to-reach areas.

The search and rescue agency received a $36,910 Title III federal grant for the purchase of emergency response equipment, including a lightweight medical slide-in tray transport unit for SAR’s utility terrain emergency response vehicle. The slide-tray unit will also have a companion transport litter, according to Union County Emergency Manager Nick Vora in a project form he submitted to Union County.

Money from the grant will also be used to boost water safety in Union County. The funding will be used to purchase inflatable kayaks and other water rescue equipment and complete the establishment of a Union County interagency swift-water rescue team. The founding members of the team being created are with Union County Emergency Services, Union County Search and Rescue and the La Grande Fire Department.

Vora said the lack of a swift-water rescue team in Union County has meant that first responders have sometimes placed themselves and those who needed to be helped at risk of drowning while attempting to perform rescues.

Vora said many are at risk in this area of needing to be rescued because so many people recreate on or near rivers and ice-cover ponds and lakes. They are not the only ones at risk.

“Even more people drive the many roads adjacent to rivers and may need to be rescued from water following a vehicle accident — a situation which has occurred many times in recent years,” he wrote.

Money from the grant will also go toward upgrading Union County Search and Rescue’s rope rescue capabilities. The funding will be used to replace all obsolete and out-of-date rescue equipment, purchase more protective equipment for rope team members and significantly reduce the weight of rescue equipment.

The Union County Board of Commissioners voted 3-0 on Wednesday, Nov. 1, to approve the expenditures for SAR the grant will pay for.

Search and rescue operations are one of the items money from Title III grants can be spent on, according to Shelley Burgess, Union County’s administrative officer.