Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/384751
36 • OCTOBER 2014 • WORLD FENCE NEWS )HQFHFRPSDQ\SUHVLGHQWFHUWL¿HGDVPDULQHSROLFH RI¿FHUTXLFNO\KDVWUDLQLQJFDOOHGLQWRDFWLRQ WARREN, Mich. — Ken Hol- lowell, CFP, is not only president of Future Fence Company, a major fabri- cating and contracting firm employing 90 people, he also was recently cer- tified as a police officer for the City of New Baltimore, Mich. And it did not take long to put his training into action. First a little history: Hollowell was approached by the city's police chief in 2012 about the opportunity to head up a new- ly-formed marine division. Due to New Baltimore's location on Lake St. Clair, a part of the Great Lakes Waterway, it is in the midst of a huge concentration of recreational boaters for which the marine division provides protection as well as law en- forcement. But the lake shares its eastern border with Canada, making it an in- ternational boundary which must be patrolled for security, smuggling and immigration reasons. The City of New Baltimore had received a federal grant from the Dept. of Homeland Security to pur- chase a high tech patrol boat, and as a seasoned boater with knowledge of the local waterways, Hollowell was one of the first crew candidates who came to mind. The training consisted of attend- ing the police academy for five months in early 2013, as well as cross training with the U.S. Coast Guard and the Border Patrol. The rest of the marine division is made up of six reserve officers who also volunteer their time to patrol the lake. While Hollowell and his asso- ciates are specially trained and carry firearms, their primary responsibili- ties are search and rescue as well as public relations and boater safety. The 24-foot Boston Whaler Jus- tice boat is equipped with twin Mer- cury Varado engines and has state- of-the-art GPS and radar, as well as underwater sonar. It has a special forward looking infrared (FLIR) system that allows the boat's crew to see in total darkness or dense fog. The craft is nicknamed "The Wiz" in honor of reserve office Pat- rick Wisniewski, who died in a motor- cycle accident on June 2. In late June 2013, only five days after the new security patrol boat was unveiled, Hollowell and commander Sean Yax rescued a man whom they found clinging to a capsized kayak on the Lake St. Clair Water Trail, follow- ing a severe thunderstorm which im- pacted the Lake St. Clair area and up- ended the small watercraft. According to a report in the Macomb Daily, as a pre- caution the two officers went out on patrol following the t hu nd er stor m and discovered the fatigued 25-year- old kayaker, who was not wearing a life jacket. Police chief Tim Wiley, who spearheaded the effort to obtain the patrol boat, said that the person was barely able to hold onto the craft. "Honestly, if they had not gone out on their own and encountered this individual, we might have been in- volved in a recovery effort instead of a rescue," the chief told the newspaper. Yax and Hollowell subsequent- ly were nominated for a life-saving award for their actions. "The officers had knowledge that people were still on the water after the storm came, so they took action," Wi- ley noted. "This is exactly the type of effort we knew the patrol boat and our officers could make." When not patrolling the Lake St. Clair waterway, Hollowell serves as president of Future Fence Company, which he founded in 1979. The firm is headquartered in Warren, Mich., and is housed in a 68,000-square-foot facility. It specializes in all types of fenc- ing and gates, access control, hand- railing and guardrail, and retaining walls. Future Fence Company works with architects, engineers, and con- tractors in the commercial, industrial, municipal, and state and federal gov- ernmental sectors. For information on the company, visit www.futurefencecompany.com. Officer Ken Hollowell Above, Hollowell aboard the New Bal- timore Police Department's high tech patrol boat, "The Wiz." 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