Noah Johnson Daily Press Masonville Township Fire Chief John Vandeville stands with one the newly installed signs.

MASONVILLE — A local township is preparing for the winter by making one of its access points to the lake/ice safer.

In Masonville Township0, the fire department painted one of the access points at Little Bay De Noc to differentiate them.

Masonville Township Fire Chief John Vandeville said that the gates being the same color causes problems for first responders.

“That’s one of our most dangerous spots you could say, or most frequently called-to areas,” Vandeville said.

Callers would ring dispatch and say they need assistance near one of the yellow gates. Rarely can the caller remember/figure out which yellow gate they are at, resulting in an extended response time for emergency personnel.

“We have a north gate and a south gate, (and) well people don’t realize in a, you know, emergency situation, they don’t know if they’re at the north one or the south one and time is crucial when people are in the ice (and/or) water,” Vandeville said.

Because of this, the department approached the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) about repainting one of the gates red and was given the go-ahead.

“I brought it back to our fire department and Masonville Fire (and) Masonville EMS decided to run with the idea – we’ll head it up and take care of everything,” he said.

The department worked on the new signs over the weekend and they are now complete.

Vandeville asked for assistance from the community to help with the project, and they delivered.

He said Northern Machining & Repair and Billerud donated funding to help with the project costs. Other organizations and businesses also contributed by offering labor, donations or discounted materials.

“Sign UP Graphics gave us a discount on the signs, the road commission donated the signposts and installed them for us on the roadside and then Pro Towing donated the concrete – the barrels for the ones on the lake site,” Vandeville said.

He says he hopes that the new color will help not only the people in need of assistance but also dispatch.

The yellow gate is on Bay Shore Drive closer to Kipling/Gladstone and the red gate is on Bay Shore Drive closer to Rapid River by the Days River Nature Trail. The two signs are roughly one mile apart.

He said that after working together with other townships and municipalities, the entire county is better prepared.

“We’re covering the whole county now by water for the departments that are on the water,” Vandeville said.

It took time, resources and teamwork to get the signs in place, but now that they are, Vandeville is hopeful it can help in the future.

“It should help, I hope it will. It would be worth every phone call I made and every minute I got into doing this painting and all that,” he said.

Now, should an ice rescue be needed, callers can tell dispatch roughly where they are by telling them the color of the gate they entered.

He added that his department and the rest of the emergency departments around the county want to make it as safe as it can be for everybody.

“At the end of the day, all of the emergency services in Delta County, they want to make Delta County safer in any way we can and even the businesses. Every business I asked jumped at the idea to donate money or help in whatever way they could,” Vandeville said.

“I can’t thank everybody that helped enough.”