Warren County is taking steps to make its waterways safer.

Warren County Fiscal Court approved Friday a flag system that the Parks and Recreation Department will soon use to inform people about water levels and water safety at two of the county’s parks.

“For the last couple of years, as you all know, emergency services, they’ve had quite a few issues at Phil Moore Park and Romanza Johnson Park with different kinds of water rescues,” Parks Director Chris Kummer told magistrates.

To help reduce the number of rescues, the parks department is implementing a system similar to the colored flags at some beaches, Kummer said.

“To hopefully help educate the public, we have come up with a three-flag system,” he said.

According to a flyer Kummer gave the Daily News, a green flag means river depth is between 3 and 16 feet; yellow means the depth is between 16 and 22 feet with swift water conditions, and canoers and kayakers are urged to “utilize extreme caution;” and red indicates depth of 22 feet or more and that access points to the river are closed.

Kummer said he hopes the system will be in use by Monday. A parks department employee will check the river and put up the appropriate flag twice a day at each park.

Warren County Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon said the flag system should help reduce the number of rescue calls at Phil Moore and Romanza Johnson parks.

“So many times out there at Drakes Creek and Trammel Creek, the river can be affected by rains that didn’t even take place in Warren County so they may not be expecting it,” Buchanon said.

“They may think it’s normal if they’re novices at what they’re doing and we’ve had a lot of that over the past two or three years.”

Fiscal court also approved the purchase of equipment and training for the Warren County Technical Rescue Team. Emergency Management Director Ronnie Pearson said Emergency Management is paying for new personal flotation devices and hardhats for roughly $3,800, while the training costs $1,950.

The training will provide 13 members of the rescue team a National Fire Protection Association certification, Pearson said.

“This is an actual national standard training that once they complete (it), they’ll get a certificate that says they are really certified to go anywhere in the U.S. with a fire department and perform that type of function,” he said. “This is the highest standard that’s out there.”

Pearson said that, with this certification, members of the technical rescue team will be able to more effectively swim out and rescue people when no other rescue options are available.

“We’ve had multiple occasions of people trapped in the river where throwing them a line or getting them to a boat just wasn’t feasible,” he said.

Fiscal court also approved the purchase of Titan, the Warren County Sheriff Office’s new K-9 officer for $12,500, a price that includes the cost of training the dog. The purchase is being funded by seized drug money, Warren County Sheriff Jerry “Peanuts” Gaines said.

The WCSO’s previous K-9 officer, Gunner, retired in April after seven years of service.

Titan, who’s working exclusively with Deputy Robert Smith, is already on the job, having completed his training the day Gunner retired, Gaines said.