Well it was inevitable…last week’s 60-degree temperatures were just not going to stick around. It is January along the shores of Lake Erie. Actually, there are some significant silver linings to these cold temperatures. First, the lake is freezing over and frozen water (ice) doesn’t evaporate. One of the primary causes of lower lake levels that cropped up late last summer was the evaporation factor from the mild winter of 2012. The other positive factor is that the extended cold weather just might freeze Lake Erie enough to allow for some ice fishing.

Perhaps the beginnings of the legend of South Bass Bessie have been discovered! Don Poppe of Port Clinton found this fossil on a rock in the north parking lot at Waterworks Park and snapped it with his camera. It is the 5th rock from the east in the north parking lot, in case you want to explore the site yourself.

Port Clinton lost two of its most precious citizens this past week and I will miss them both very much. Dick Wolf passed away last Friday. He literally gave his life to the Port Clinton Yacht Club as the caretaker there for 34 years. The title “caretaker”, as Past Commodore Lock Zeis pointed out at the funeral, doesn’t quite cover what Dick did in his years at PCYC. The room was filled with Past Commodores for whom he served, literally taking care of every inch of that facility. On Monday morning, “The other Mary Alice”, otherwise known as Myrt Streeter, also passed away. She was a character in the best sense of that term. She and her late husband Clarence raised a family of beautiful and successful children, and they will forever be her legacy.

 Ok, it is New Year’s, so it is time once again for The Great Swami (otherwise known as your slightly cynical Beacon newspaper publisher) to predict what Ottawa County will look like in the year 2023. Just having a little fun, OK?

The plan was to have The Beacon in your hands on Christmas Eve.