PUT-IN-BAY – Multi-agency law enforcement support increased significantly during the Bash on the Bay country music festival, spearheaded by the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office, and attended by 18,000 fans.
During the event, two assaults on the concert grounds could lead to four people facing charges.
The Bash on the Bay festival took place on Aug. 21 and 22, on the grounds of the Put-in-Bay Airport, on South Bass Island.
Ottawa County Sheriff Stephen Levorchick described the law enforcement scenario, which included mounted police, a mobile command post, SWAT Team members and a drone team, from sheriff’s office’s from around the state.
A mobile command post brought in from Franklin County. It is a portable building with law enforcement insignia and tools.
“We had a communication center command post, where we can have different entities meet and command any scenes, like at the sheriff’s office, if we had to pull in any local police department officers, we could, EMS, fire, we could all of them in the same room.
There were more than 60 law enforcement officers at the event, from at least half a dozen Ohio sheriff’s offices.
Levorchick confirmed that they were off-duty and paid by the event promoter
“Taxpayers were not paying for the deputies that I just talked about, the promoter is. We do also have a few of our deputies that are on-duty, being paid by our county, because this thing is in our county, but the large majority are paid for by the promoter, to have security inside the venue,” Levorchick said.
He also spoke about the deputies that had special skills.
“We have six of our SWAT officers here. What we do is (create) what are called QRFs. It’s a quick reaction force. So, if there’s an incident, we have two QRFs,” Levorchick explained. “We also have six mounted, additional with horses, and we have K-9s. We have multiple canines, and we sweep the location with Explosive Ordinance Disposal dogs, prior to the doors opening.”
They were also surveilling the property from the sky, with drones.
“We actually utilize the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office Drone Team,” Levorchick said.
Law enforcement was not ignored outside the event.
“We also have the normal Put-in-Bay deputies that work (outside the event) in the township,” Levorchick explained.
Inside the Bash on the Bay grounds, there were two assaults, with a total of four people who could face criminal charges.
Wednesday night, two adults and one juvenile, were involved in a fight. The juvenile will be referred to the prosecutor’s office.
They were issued citations and released.
Thursday, there was another incident, involving a male that was issued a citation for assault. That situation was handled by a QRF unit.
Assisting the Sheriff’s Office was the U.S. Coast Guard, the Ohio Naval Militia, and Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Division.
In a previously reported story, the U.S. Coast Guard boarded the craft carrying Jelly Roll, in a routine inspection. Levorchick was on the boat with Jelly Roll and the craft was allowed to proceed, without incident, after a check of proper document and equipment.
Levorchick had a chance to speak with Jelly Roll, and spoke highly of him, noting that the ticket sales were larger on the first day of the 2-day festival.
“Jelly Roll is on fire right now,” Levorchick said. “He definitely wants to do what’s best for the recovery community.”
rlapointe@gannett.com
419-332-2674
This article originally appeared on Port Clinton News Herald: Law enforcement increased for Bash on the Bay; two incidents
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