Fishermen will pay for rescue efforts

DE PERE - The eight people rescued in De Pere Friday after venturing out on the ice will have to pay for the incident.

It happened a little after 7:00 a.m. when the group were fishing off the shore of Voyageur Park.

They became stranded after the ice broke free, floated away, and left them surrounded by open water.

Crews from the De Pere Fire Department and Brown County rescued the group.

Fire officials say each person involved will be billed $500 for the rescue efforts.

Officials were able to track down the names and addresses of those stranded.

They say the fee is part of a fee structure that was already in place.

It helps defray cost and reduce the tax burden on tax payers.

"We have been recommending for the last couple of weeks to stay off the ice. (Friday) was just another routine scenario that we run across from time to time. We're not billing them because of yesterday, we're billing them because we have the fee structure in place," said De Pere Fire Chief Robert Kiser.

Officials continue to urge people to stay off the ice when it's unsafe.