NORFOLK
A low-profile Norfolk police waterborne patrol that protected nine city-owned lakes and reservoirs in Suffolk and Isle of Wight County ended this month in a money-saving move.
Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries conservation police officers - who used to be known as "game wardens" - already were patrolling the waterways, from which Norfolk gets drinking water, said Andrew Northcutt, a management analyst in the city Department of Utilities.
Docking the city patrol will save $211,000 a year in salaries, boats and equipment that his department was picking up, Northcutt said.
"It was a pretty big price tag," he said.
The three lake-patrol officers will be reassigned within the police department, Northcutt said. A patrol representative didn't return phone calls Thursday.
Policing the waterways will be left to an undermanned Game and Inland Fisheries contingent that has only three of its normal complement of five officers for South Hampton Roads, said Capt. Michael Minarik, Tidewater region manager for its Law Enforcement Division.
"We're hard to see... but we're there," Minarik said.
His officers enforce boating safety and fishing regulations and provide "a great set of eyes and ears out there" to watch for the occasional dumping of harmful substances, Minarik said.
Matthew Bowers, (757) 222-3893, matthew.bowers@pilotonline.com
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