SOUTH KINGSTOWN — Dive teams from Narragansett to Westport, Mass., fanned out across Worden Pond Wednesday in search of a 61-year-old West Warwick man who disappeared the day before after sending a despondent text message to his girlfriend.

A Rhode Island Airport Corporation helicopter surveyed the area from the air. State police dogs were brought in.

In all, more than 100 people assisted in the search over two days before Edward Neff knocked on the door of a nearby house around 9:30 Wednesday and asked the residents to call the police.

When officers arrived, they found Neff in “relatively good health,” according to the police. He had been in the Worden Pond area since Tuesday evening, when a search for him began.

Neff, of 28 Sunset Drive, could not be reached for comment yesterday. Neither could his son or daughter, both who officials said came in from out of town Wednesday.

But Union Fire District Chief Robert Perry said yesterday he is considering trying to recover the more than $50,000 estimated cost of the search from Neff.

“My feeling is we’re trying to recoup some of the costs,” Perry said. He planned to meet with a lawyer and Town Manager Stephen Alfred in the coming days, he said.

“[The volunteer firefighters] didn’t go to work yesterday,” Perry said. “They didn’t get paid. How do I repay that?” He worries that volunteers won’t respond if people cry wolf too many times.

The search began late Tuesday afternoon after Neff sent his girlfriend a distraught message that spurred her to call the Worden Pond Campground, according to South Kingstown police Capt. Jeffrey Allen. “He said he was going on a long swim,” Perry said.

A campground worker called the police upon seeing Neff’s car at the boat ramp and a man chest deep about 150 feet out in the water, Allen said. When officers arrived, no man was in sight in the water.

Facing debts, Neff had taken drugs and alcohol before entering the water, which is four to five feet deep throughout most of the pond, according to the police. A retired computer consultant, Neff observed the search but was groggy for much of Wednesday.

“I think in this situation we truly had an individual who was in need,” Allen said. “Normally we don’t bill people who are having problems. We try to help them. That’s what we do.”

The state Department of Environmental Management accrued $3,000 to $5,000 in expenses. According to DEM spokeswoman Gail Mastrati, the department has never pursued reimbursement in for past searches, but would not rule it out until their investigation is complete.

“At this point, the department is pleased that the man has turned up and is alive,” she said.

A spokeswoman for the Rhode Island Airport Corporation said yesterday that the agency would not seek repayment for the $580 helicopter flight over Worden Pond.

It is the second time in as many years that the Union Fire District has conducted a costly search. On Columbus Day weekend 2006, firefighters undertook a massive search for a mother of four who disappeared from the campground. The police later learned that she had spent the night on Block Island before taking a flight to Las Vegas. The fire district did not seek repayment in that case.

Just days ago, Glocester and state police and the DEM searched for a 52-year-old day trader who was reported missing after he failed to return from a camping trip. Mark Harrington, of 36 Spring Grove Rd., Glocester, called his family this week to say that he had driven to Bodega Bay on the California coast.

kmulvane@projo.com