Bolivar dive team prepares for opening of new Sand Beach Lake

BOLIVAR, Tenn. — A year ago, Bolivar announced the soon-to-be Sand Beach Lake. Now, they’ve got their own dive team.

“There’ll be kayaks, paddle boats, things like that on the water. We need emergency response to be able to assist in the event somebody drowns,” said dive team member Chris Wilkerson.

We hit the water with them Tuesday morning to see what they’ve learned so far.

“We’ll get inside there, drop off, then we’ll shoot a surface marker buoy up so you’ll see where we’re coming up, then we’ll surface a little bit for you,” Wilkerson said.

They’re training at Dive Memphis with the help of Fayette County EMA Director Hunter Winfrey as their instructor.

These are some of the other practice dives they’ve done as they work to become a rescue dive team.

“With the opening of this lake, we need somebody who can get here in a timely manner,” Wilkerson said. “Time is everything when you’re trying to save a victim.”

Once we got back on dry land, we got an update on what’s happening around the rest of Sand Beach Lake.

“We have started on the trails and almost completed them, hopefully we’ll get started on putting up some of the split rail fence,” said Bolivar Mayor Julian McTizic.

The trails around Sand Beach Lake will be the first thing to open, later this fall if everything stays on track.

“Provide a place for the citizens to have recreational activities right here at home,” McTizic said. “Take advantage of some of the great outdoors. You don’t have to travel far.”

They also plan to have RV spots and camp grounds at the lake too.