Czar, the current Search and Rescue dog for the Marquette County Sheriff's Office, is pictured. Czar will retire in the next few months after 10 years of service. The Marquette County Board of Commissioners approved the purchase of a new search and rescue K-9 at its Tuesday meeting. The dog will be named Cliff in honor of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., which donated $10,000 for the purchase and training of a new K-9. (Photo courtesy of Errol Lukkarinen)

MARQUETTE — The purchase of a new Search and Rescue dog for the Marquette County Sheriff’s Office was approved by the Marquette County Board of Commissioners at its Tuesday meeting.

Quotes from three K-9 vendors were considered by the board, but the recommendation from Marquette County Sheriff Greg Zyburt for the vendor Von der haus Gill German Shepherds Inc., was unanimously approved. Commissioner Karen Alholm was absent from the meeting.

With a bid of $12,800, Von der haus Gill had the lowest bid of the two vendors that submitted quotes including the K-9. The third bid, which was from Mark McDonough of Anoka, Minnesota, for roughly $10,500, included the training of a K-9, but not the purchase.

Funding for the new dog comes from a $10,000 donation from Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., a $1,000 donation from Walmart and a $900 donation from the Marquette Chapter of the Warthogs, a local police motorcycle group.

The remaining costs, food, veterinary bills and other expenses associated with the K-9 will be covered by funds from the rescue safety millage, Zyburt explained.

In honor of the donation from Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., the new K-9 will be named Cliff.

“The role of the new dog — as (was) the old one — is going to be pure search and rescue. And it will be trained as a cadaver dog, so looking for bodies and the scent for search and rescue,” Zyburt said in an interview with The Journal.

While the vendor is named Von der haus Gill German Shepherds, the sheriff said he prefers to get a nonaggressive dog for the department such as a Labrador retriever.

“Over the years the dog has really helped in certain situations and I wanted a dog that is not aggressive,” Zyburt said during the meeting. “We use the dog for (public relations) we take him to wellness fairs, to parades. The kids love the dog, we take it in schools. It’s a really good teaching tool for our department and I want to continue that. That’s another reason why I didn’t want an aggressive dog.”

Over the years, a K-9 has proved to be a valuable asset to Marquette County’s search and rescue operations, he added.

“Our search and rescue gets called out two times a week and it can be summer, winter, spring or fall, they’re very active. It doesn’t matter where in the county but they get a lot of calls for people who are lost and this is a real asset for our team. Especially the county being as large as it is,” Zyburt said.

He noted that the current search and rescue dog has helped find multiple people throughout his service.

The current K-9, Czar, is on the path to retire in the next few months due to age.

Czar is a 10-year-old German shepherd who was trained as a puppy for search and rescue with his handler, Marquette County Sheriff’s Department Special Operations Division Cpl. Errol Lukkarinen

“The dog is an extra tool that we can utilize to locate people, good people and bad people,” Lukkarinen said. “Their noses are pretty much next to none.”

During his time, Czar has conducted numerous finds and apprehensions for search and rescue, he said.

“There’s one in particular I remember, he went out and assisted one of the police departments on a subject that had warrants and he tracked him over nine miles,” Lukkarinen said.

Czar was trained to track the strongest human scent through the woods and also to pick up and follow scents from articles of clothing, a valuable quality for department dogs to have, he said.

“Our biggest thing is our search and rescue team. It consists of volunteers — one of our volunteers they have a K-9 also — and we utilize that for search and rescue. And it doesn’t matter if it’s four legs or two legs out there, the mission is to locate people and to save lives,” Lukkarinen said.

The search and rescue team, the volunteers and the K-9s are “silent heroes,” he said.

“When search and rescue and these search K-9 get deployed, most of the time it’s in the middle of the night and in the worst weather conditions,” Lukkarinen said in an email. “Most people don’t know our volunteers and these K-9’s were out. They are the silent heroes.”

During the meeting, the board also unanimously declared March 26 as Bicycle Safety Day. Marquette County resident Margaret Brumm presented the resolution to the board to encourage residents to make themselves seen when biking.

“The County of Marquette has vested interest in the safety of all residents and visitors who travel by bicycle, now, therefore be it resolved, the Marquette County Board of Commissioners declares March 26, 2020, be Bicycle Safety Day within the county,” the resolution reads.

The resolution also noted that there are 42 bike trails in the city, including 37 for road biking and other use trails.

“What this is all about is it’s been a pretty dark window — and by dark I mean a lot of people moving about when there wasn’t daylight — and I’ve had a number of situations where I’ve had to dodge bicyclists, pedestrians, dog walkers just because I couldn’t see them,” Brumm said.

Brumm will host a bike safety presentation at 6 p.m. March 26 at the Peter White Public Library and give out free reflective vests and light clips for bicycles to all attendees while supplies last. The event is open to the public.

Trinity Carey can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 206. Her email address is tcarey@miningjournal.net.