CHOCOWINITY — Rescues on local waterways just got faster with the help of one Beaufort County community.

Cypress Landing Marina, in Chocowinity, will be housing, at no cost to the department, the Chocowinity Fire and EMS’ new boat, a 2003, 24-foot Carolina skiff. Also at no cost to the department was the boat itself, a donation from Cypress Landing resident Bob Schultz.

“We can’t be grateful enough. It’s been a blessing to us, that’s for sure,” said Chocowinity Volunteer Fire Department Chief Tommy Pendley.

Thursday, emergency services personnel and Cypress Landing residents gathered at the marina for an official dedication as a rescue boat with a longstanding tradition — a “wet down,” in which a vehicle, or in this case, a vessel, is initiated into service by being sprayed down by fire engine cannons. Schulz, Pendley, Chocowinity EMS Chief Shane Grier, Beaufort County Emergency Services Director Carnie Hedgepeth and Skip Vail, president of the Cypress Landing Marina Association, were on hand to talk about how the donation came about and what it means to water rescue response in the county as a whole and for Chocowinity in particular.

Until this year, water rescue on the county waterways has been a challenging prospect, according to Chris Newkirk, Beaufort County operations chief of fire/emergency management.

“There have been cases in the past where that response has not been as seamless as we want,” Newkirk said. “Any time we have an incident on the water, it has the potential to be challenging for a number of reasons.”

Newkirk said, earlier this year, Hedgepeth identified water rescue as a weakness in county emergency response and began meeting with the county fire and EMS representatives to create the protocol now followed by every department in the county. On the other side, Vail and Grier started talking in April about the lack of emergency response vessels on the south side of the Pamlico River, as well as response times being magnified because every department with a boat had it stored on a trailer — not in the water — adding critical minutes to any response.

“It was minimum of 45 minutes’ response time,” Vail said.

In the case of emergency, response time is key. While Chocowinity Fire and EMS would certainly respond to an on-the-water emergency previously, they were hamstrung by lack of access to victims.

“I think last year we had five or six (incidents) that we were called out, that we went and assisted, but we couldn’t do anything because we had to wait for the response from the north side of the river,” Pendley said. “The best thing about this is that the boat’s going to be sitting in the water, ready to go.”

The Chocowinity departments’ boat adds to a growing fleet of rescue boats: Washington, Bunyan, Aurora and Bath departments each have a boat, in addition to the Sidney Dive Team. Part of emergency services’ rewrite of protocol calls for all boats available to respond to on-the-water emergency incidents, as well as the nearest Fire/EMS department, regardless of whether the squad has a boat. This is so personnel can “put eyes” on the situation and relay needs to telecommunicators as quickly as possible,” Newkirk said.

Responding as quickly as possible is the goal for Cypress Landing, as well. Vail, in his early discussions, realized that the marina was in a unique position to speed up response by offering a slip to a Chocowinity Fire-Rescue-EMS vessel.

“It just makes all the sense in the world to do it,” Vail said.

But it was when Schultz saw an August article in the Washington Daily News about the community effort to find a water rescue boat, that the pieces all fell into place — he donated his.

“The boat was donated; the slip was donated; so, it’s saving the taxpayers money,” Pendley said.

While the donations from Schultz and the Cypress Landing Marina Association certainly save Beaufort County taxpayers the expense of a boat and slip rental, they reveal much more: a deep commitment by a community to support the people who serve it.

“I think it’s a testimony to the relationship that our fire departments have with our communities when you have a community that’s willing to step up and make those donations to help those agencies help others,” Newkirk said. “They’re a lot of people in this county that do a lot of things behind the scenes that never get recognition — I am thankful that we have people in the communities that do that.”

“We do support the community as best we can — all of Washington and Beaufort County — and the fire department and EMS, in particular, are close to our hearts,” Vail said. “The guys at the fire station know that Cypress Landing has their back.”

“Cypress Landing is a big, big help to us,” Pendley said. “We can’t thank Mr. Shultz enough.”