Put-In-Bay police address crowd control challenges during the Summer tourist season - WTVG

seliranga.blogspot.com

PUT-IN-BAY, Ohio (WTVG) - On most days, South Bass Island is a peaceful, tranquil setting. If you look closely, you’ll notice signs posted across the small community with a warning to guests: “Enjoy island time, don’t do jail time.”

“People come here to have fun. We try to provide fun. If they have a little too much fun, we have to deal with it,” the Mayor of Put-In-Bay, Judy Berry said.

On Saturday, July 22, 2023, she says the crowds got out of hand. There were golf cart traffic jams, oversized pool parties, and fist fights at the bus stop.

“The nature of the beast over here is it’s like having a concert every weekend, except we don’t sell tickets and you don’t know how many people are going to show up,” Berry said.

“We never know who or what’s going to show up here. You know, we are a place, a party place. People like to come and have a good time. We’re a destination spot, so people travel from all over,” James Kimble, Chief of Put-In-Bay Police said.

Chief Kimble says that Saturday used to be a Christmas in July event, but the community has not hosted it in four years. Still, he explains, some people showed up, got rowdy, and got arrested.

“There was a total of 18 arrests, which is about your typical day. When you have, you’re dealing with 18,000, 19,000 people, you’re going to have those kind of numbers,” Chief Kimble, who called the Ottawa County Sheriff to request assistance said. He says S.W.A.T. showed up by 8:00 PM.

“We saw some things that made us feel uncomfortable, so I reached out to the sheriff and I said I needed more manpower on the island because we’re starting to lose a little bit of control,” the chief said.

In a few weeks, Chief Kimble says the two-day concert “Bash on the Bay” will be different. He expects the Sheriff will have 40-50 additional deputies from across Ohio on hand to help control a daily crowd of 10,000 to 12,000. They can anticipate that attendance because the event is a private, ticketed concert with privately funded security.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please include the title when you click here to report it.

Copyright 2023 WTVG. All rights reserved.

Adblock test (Why?)

"crowd" - Google News
August 01, 2023 at 05:22AM
https://ift.tt/kBf2Fuy

Put-In-Bay police address crowd control challenges during the Summer tourist season - WTVG
"crowd" - Google News
https://ift.tt/784yGMT
https://ift.tt/oyWlpFn

Bagikan Berita Ini