Trumbull commissioners hope to find way to keep hovercraft

WARREN — The Trumbull County commissioners are not ready to donate the hovercraft the county acquired in 2012 with federal Homeland Security money despite problems with maintenance and training for the device.

It hovers on water and ice and can be used in ways a typical boat cannot.

Bazetta Township Fire Chief Dennis Lewis told the commissioners this week it has become too expensive for the township to continue keeping the emergency-rescue device because of maintenance and training costs.

It has been operated by the Bazetta Fire Department, and three township firefighters were trained in its operations.

Bazetta was thought to be the place the hovercraft could most effectively be used for ice rescues on Mosquito Lake.

But it has never been used for an ice rescue, Lewis said. It has been used for water rescues twice – on the Mahoning River in Warren in July 2013 and once when duck hunters got trapped on the Grand River in 2014.

For the complete story, read Friday's Vindicator and Vindy.com