(Arnolds Park)– Another reminder for everyone to use caution Winter Games Weekend when venturing out onto the ice. Joe Yurkowski, a Conservation Officer with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources tells KUOO news there are several trouble spots that may appear to be safe, but are far from it. He says everyone especially needs to stay away from under bridges…
“Some of our bridges now, they may look like they’re all frozen over but there is very little ice under that bridge that’s not going to be able to hold a person or a machine or anything. So completely stay away from a bridge. Large lakes such as Okoboji, Spirit Lake, or any of these lakes, they move, they contract and they kind of expand and you get what’s called ice heaves and different seams that will form. Currently there’s a seam, about every year, from Pillsbury Point to Fort Dodge Point, if you’re familiar with that. Be careful with that seam. They change every, kind of every day. They move a little bit as well. There’s seams coming off of Gull Point as well as a really big one up by Manhattan and Omaha Point.”
Yurkowski adds it’s extremely important for operators of snowmobiles and off road vehicles to not out drive the distance of their headlights and to not venture off commonly traveled areas. And, he says, you need to make sure your registration and user permits are current…
“It’s 2021 so make sure user permits, registrations, whatever applicable to whatever machine they’re going to use, make sure that is currently up to par before you bring it out on the ice. If you’re going to go fishing make sure you buy a 2021 fishing license as well, too.”
Yurkowski says the DNR will also have additional officers on duty throughout the weekend in the Iowa Great Lakes…
“You know we kind of call this kind of our other busy weekend other than 4th of July up here so we bring in enough people necessary to make sure everybody is safe if we have any problems or anything like that. Hopefully everybody has a safe weekend and we have no problems. So we’ll have several, probably a couple dozen actually, officers from around the state volunteer their time and to come up to help people if they have questions or something like that. And also to be, you know, hopefully be more of a deterrent for people that are, you know, going to operate in a negligent manner as well, too.”
Winter Games weekend typically draws hundreds of snowmobiles and off road vehicles onto the Iowa Great Lakes.
