Sheriff, fishermen to talk ice safety

PORT CLINTON - Ottawa County's sheriff is offering the olive branch to area ice fisherman. Sheriff Bob Bratton has scheduled a meeting to talk over changes to his department's ice fishing policy with those who would be affected the most.

The March 12 meeting is in response to a major ice rescue Feb. 7 near the Lake Erie shoreline. Over 130 fishermen were pulled off the cracked surface by local, county, federal and international rescue teams after temperatures rapidly rose and southerly warm air whisked over the great lake.

At the time, the sheriff didn't hold back his feelings. He spouted off on local and national news outlets saying some of the fisherman should have been arrested for stupidity. He said they were negligent and should not have been on the ice due to rapidly deteriorating weather conditions.

"I'm for ice fishing, that's not the point, but there's no section of law about stupidity because they all should be arrested for that today," Sheriff Bratton was quoted on Feb. 7.

A month after he made that statement, a mellower sheriff hopes to work with ice fisherman to prevent such a situation from happening again.

"I want to hear what the fisherman have to say,” said Bratton. "I had my say. I'm not changing my feelings about what happened Feb. 7, not at all. But they have the right now to come in and talk to me."

The March 12 meeting starts at 6 p.m. inside the Emergency Operations Center at the Ottawa County Courthouse in Port Clinton.