WOODLAND — Woodland firefighters want to build the city’s first life jacket loaner station at Horseshoe Lake Park, an effort to improve water safety in a community bordered by two rivers.

The proposal awaits City Council approval Tuesday before construction begins, and the organizers hope it is completed before summer is out.

City staff, volunteer firefighters and the police union raised the $1,200 needed for the project, said Woodland Interim Fire Chief Joe Tone. The Safe Kids Foundation agreed to help fill the stand with life jackets, he said.

Firefighters plan to build similar stands at Lion’s Day Park and the Merwin Dam recreation areas later this year. Costs will be paid entirely by donations, said Tone, who hasn’t yet started fundraising for the other two stands.

A rash of drownings in Cowlitz County this summer prompted the effort, Tone said.

He was surprised at how few children wore life jackets at the Horseshoe Lake beach when temperatures reached triple digits this summer, he said.

“There were only three people with life jackets” out of a crowd of several hundred, Tone said.

The drownings also prompted Woodland’s volunteer firefighter association to buy an underwater sonar detector for the Woodland Fire Department. It cost $2,600, which was raised during the firefighter’s annual Planters Days barbecue, he said.

The sonar detector, which can scan river floors and up to 600 feet wide, is the first one owned by a Cowlitz County search and rescue agency, Tone said.

Capt. Mark Nelson of the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office said the only device currently owned by the county is an underwater camera attached to a pole, which “works pretty well but it’s kind of a challenge” to maneuver.

“If they’re getting more equipment and technology, that helps everybody around here,” Nelson said. “Any additional technology that we can get is really beneficial.”

Having a detector in the county will reduce waiting time for neighboring agencies to send their equipment, Tone said.

The detector already is attached to Woodland Fire’s rescue boat. It features a GPS unit, so “theoretically you can navigate your way through the fog or whatever,” Tone said.

Tone said rescue teams were impressed to see how clearly it worked in a practice session on Aug. 28. They found old tires and even the skeleton of a drowned cow at the bottom of Horseshoe Lake, he said.

You can help: To make a donation for building life jacket loaner stations around Woodland, contact Joe Tone at (360) 225-7076.