Brrrr. Prostitution in ice fishing shanties?
Talk about hooking up.
An Ohio mayor told council members last week that permitting ice fishing on a community park lake could encourage prostitution under the cover of ice fishing shanties.
Mayor Craig Shubert of Hudson, Ohio, offered the warning during discussion of ice fishing safety on the lake and the city’s insurance liability.
The 260-acre waterway, Hudson Springs Park Lake, is located in the city of 22,000 people about 15 miles north of Akron, Ohio, and 30 miles southeast of Cleveland in Summit County. Ice fishing was permitted on the lake, but has been banned for several years.
“If you open this up to ice fishing, while on the surface it sounds good, then what happens next year? Does somebody come back and say, ‘I want an ice shanty in Hudson Springs Park for ‘X’ amount of time?,” said Shubert, in comments recorded on live-streaming video and posted on the community website. “And if you then allow ice fishing with shanties, then that leads to another problem, prostitution, and now you have the police chief and police department involved.”
Council did not comment on the mayor’s suggestion, but it was reported by Cleveland.com and Gray Television, and a portion of the video was distributed widely on social media.
Ice thickness
“There is no ‘safe ice,’” says the state Fish and Boat Commission, urging anglers to refer instead to ‘good ice” and “bad ice’ ” The distinction acknowledges that while thick, clear ice may be apparently suitable for fishing, there is alway an inherent risk in fishing, walking, sledding, skiing, snowmobiling, ice boating or driving on lake ice.
The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources encourages its winter guests to stay safe, too, by publishing updates of ice and snow conditions at state parks. DCNR says the State Parks Winter Report is updated weekly or more on the department’s website.
“The report lists the ice thickness and what ice activities are available at that park. Sometimes a park can have ice, but if it is not thick enough, then the activities are not available,” says an advisory on the webpage.
Users can select parks or activities. Updates include ice and snow thickness by inches, recommended activities and detailed conditions.
Be advised, however, that ice listings on the State Parks Winter Report are not consistent. On Thursday, the most recent listing for Moraine State Park (Lake Arthur, Butler County) was posted six days earlier and reported 8 inches of ice with merely a general ice safety instructions and the warning, “Ice thickness is not monitored!”
On Wednesday, the timely report for Raccoon Creek State Park (Raccoon Lake, Beaver County) listed 7 inches and the following message: “Ice is only measured at the beach area, and ice depth may vary. Please use caution when recreating on the ice. Please use caution when recreating during periods of severe cold, and dress appropriately. Park roads may be icy during cold temperatures.”
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