Following a controversial event last February, the town of Crescent passed an ordinance recently to regulate ice drag events and other area towns may soon follow suit.

Last February, an ice drag event on Lake Thompson in the town of Pelican attracted more people than expected and left some nearby property owners less than thrilled to have the event in their backyards.

“We saw and heard what happened on Lake Thompson last winter,” Crescent town chairman William Treder said. “So we wanted to create some guidelines.”
Treder said there was talk of banning the events altogether but the board did not want to go that route.

“We wanted to work with the businesses,” Treder said. “I didn’t really want to just ban them.”

Instead the new ordinance will require event organizers to take steps to alert the town of events that are happening and make sure the lake is returned to its original state.

“First, the ordinance basically says that organizers must make us aware, estimate the number of people, how many porta-johns they will need and the number of garbage cans they will have,” Treder said.

Organizers will also be responsible for cleaning up any trash and getting the snow cover back to its original state.

“Sometimes they have to plow lanes for the races,” Treder said. “The ordinances says they have plow the snow back so it is usable for snowmobiles and whoever else to use the lake.”

Treder said the ordinance does not limit the number of people allowed to attend the events.

While the ordinace was recently passed, Treder said other towns are interested in what the town of Crescent has done.

“We have other towns following suit,” Treder said. “The town of Pelican has called us about the ordinance and are interested in doing something similar.”