Members of the Dickinson County Dive Team do open water training. The team trains with the Delta County Dive Team. (Submitted photo via Iron Mountain Daily News)

IRON MOUNTAIN — The Dickinson County Dive Team is working to reestablish itself.

The dive team is utilized for search and rescue, recovery and evidence collection. They are on call 24/7 all year and work hand-in-hand on operations with the Dickinson County Sheriff’s Marine Division, said Lt. Jason Conery, team coordinator for the past two years.

Boats, communication vehicles, and trailers are at the team’s disposal to ensure all operations are done in the fastest and safest manner, he said.

“We have a mutual aid agreement with Delta County. Dickinson is building its team, so we don’t have all the necessities. We just got a trailer. We’re insured through the county but dive with Delta,” he said.

The team, however, receives no funding from the county. So a recent $16,092 donation from the Dickinson County 100-Plus Women Who Care provided a solid boost toward purchasing equipment. The nomination came from Luanne Guiliani, who has a son and grandson on the team. She said she has put the name up for consideration five times at the 100-Plus Women gatherings.

The group meets four times a year and pools donations for one local non-profit. Members can be teams of one, three or four people, with each team donating $100.

At each meeting, names of non-profits are placed in a bucket and three drawn to vie for the donation. Representatives of each non-profit then have five minutes to make their case and answer questions before the teams vote on which one gets the money.

Conery said they are grateful to have been chosen.

“Without their generous donation, we wouldn’t be able to purchase the necessary equipment needed, lessening our response time into the water,” he said.

The funds will be used for dry suits, additional masks, gloves, lights, buoyancy compensator vests, regulators, scuba tanks and dive computers that are attached to regulators, Conery said.

He added that divers have their own equipment, but he would like to see them all outfitted with county equipment.

The divers, who are all volunteers, include Tony Guiliani, 12 years’ diving experience; Craig VanPembrook, 39 years’ experience;

Nicholas Maycunich, five years’ experience; Austin Guiliani, one year of experience; and James Cain, 21 years’ experience.

Conery serves as coordinator, handles all the funds and helps divers from the surface.

“We’re trying to get what we absolutely need to go out,” he said.

If there are calls in Delta County, team members travel there to assist. Delta County’s Dive Team does the same for Dickinson County calls.

“Any time Dickinson dives, Delta is diving with us. We can go out before Delta gets here, and go in the water here because it’s going to take them about 45 minutes with lights and sirens,” Conery said. The sheriff’s department had a dive team when he was hired in 2005, Conery said, but it disbanded when the person in charge retired and all the equipment was given to Menominee County.

After a man drown in 2019, they began the process of restarting the team. None of the current divers were on that team.

The team trains monthly with Delta County Dive Team. They also take part in the annual clean up at Kitch-iti-Kipi, a 40-feet-deep natural spring in Palms Book State Park in Schoolcraft County.

They are seeking more volunteer divers. A public safety diver must be certified by the Professional Association of Diving Instructors and attend a Dive Rescue International course, Conery added.

Team members emphasized being safe on the ice when fishing and urged people to use extra precaution — don’t go alone, don’t go near open water, let people know where you are going and tell family when you are going and when you expect to return.

“If you ice fish a lot, get a float suit,” VanPembrook said. “They cost about $200. The die-hard ones are going to go out there early; they go out there late. Get the suit — it floats and is insulated.”

The Dickinson County 100-Plus Women Who Care will next meet Feb. 12 at Pine Grove Country Club. Since the group organized in December 2012, it has raised more than $700,000 in donations.