The Ironton Police Department had its hands full over the weekend with several incidents related to Rally on the River.

Officers pulled long hours to maintain security at the four-day event, Police Chief Jim Carey said.

“We had every available officer we could working and in my opinion we probably needed twice that much,” Carey said.

Along with the police department, the Ohio Department of Public Safety Liquor Control Division and the Ohio State Highway Patrol were also present at the event.

The police chief said he broke up about 10 altercations Saturday evening. The department probably broke up between 20 and 30 altercations during the course of the event, though there’s no way of knowing exactly how many, Carey said.

Carey said many of the altercations involved people from Lawrence County and the surrounding areas rather than people who traveled to come to the Rally.

In many cases, the officers broke up the fights and did not make arrests. Making arrests would have tied up the officers with paperwork, he said.

“To me it was larger and to me there was more drunkenness,” Carey said about this year’s Rally. “(There were) more alcohol sells than there were in previous years.”

The department also responded to two motorcycle accidents.

Around 2:15 a.m. Saturday a woman fell off her motorcycle in the 1800 block of South Third Street. The woman sustained injuries and was taken to King’s Daughters Medical Center. Another accident about 7:30 p.m. Saturday involved a truck and a motorcycle on South Third Street. There were severe injuries in that accident, Carey said.

The chief said he heard of a death in the camp at Frogtown. The department was not notified so he assumes it was a medical-related death, Carey said.

The department also responded to two robberies — one at Frogtown and one on South Second and Adams streets.

Thomas Hanshaw, of 5408 Cannonsburg Road, Ashland, Ky. was arrested by the Coal Grove Police Department for the robbery at Frogtown.

Chance Freeman, 25, of 718 Mulberry Street Ironton, was arrested for the robbery on South Second Street and Adams Street.

Carey said despite the trouble the Friends of Ironton did a great job organizing the event and his officers did a great job as well.