Pennsylvania Angler & Boater - November/December 2012 - 55

CURRENTS
New President Brings Extensive Boating Experience to Position
As the newly elected President of the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission, Steven M. Ketterer brings a lifetime of boating and water safety experience to the Board of Commissioners. With this experience, he intends to highlight the Commission’s core messages about boating safety education, the importance of wearing life jackets and the dangers of boating under the influence. Ketterer, a Harrisburg native who also serves as the chief of Harrisburg River Rescue, was elected to the one-year term at the Commission’s quarterly meeting on July 17 in Harrisburg. Commissioner G. Warren Elliott, a resident of Chambersburg, Franklin County, was elected vice president. An avid outdoorsman, Elliott joined the board in July 2009. Ketterer encourages all boaters to regularly review the Commission’s boating handbook before each boating season. The handbook is available online at www.fishandboat.com/ bookboat.htm. New boaters are reminded that boating safety education certificates are required to operate a personal watercraft. They are also required for anyone born on or after January 1, 1982, to operate boats powered by motors greater than 25 horsepower. In his new role, President Ketterer will continue to advance the agency’s request to the Department of Environmental Protection to list the Susquehanna River as a high priority impaired water. Adding the river would trigger a timeline under federal Environmental Protection Agency regulations for state regulators to develop a comprehensive plan to clean up the river. Ketterer was appointed as a boating-at-large Commissioner on April 24, 2007. He is retired from the City of Harrisburg
photo-CMS photo-Spring Gearhart

Commissioner Steven M. Ketterer Commissioner G. Warren Elliott

and is the owner of Ketterer’s Rescue Products. He has been an active member of Harrisburg River Rescue since 1972 and has been chief since 1986. He has been instrumental in the development of a number of water rescue and emergency management programs, including the Emergency Medical System for the Pennsylvania State Capitol Complex; the Commission’s Water Rescue Programs; river rescue organizations in three municipalities within the State of New Jersey; and the Pennsylvania Water Rescue Accreditation Program. Commissioner Ketterer is a member of the Keystone Aquatic Club; Pennsylvania Boating Association, Inc.; and the Pennsylvania Water Rescue Instructors Association (board member). He was a member of the Commission’s Boating Advisory Board from 1997-2007. For more information about current Commissioners, visit the PFBC website at www.fishandboat.com and select “Commissioners.”

photo-Eric Levis

Perry County Native Named Director of the Bureau of Law Enforcement
A Perry County native has been named the new director of the Bureau of Law Enforcement for the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission (PFBC). Colonel Corey Britcher, originally from Newport, takes over the top position after serving as the regional manager for PFBC’s Southcentral Region Law Enforcement Office in Newville, Cumberland County. He succeeds Colonel Thomas J. Kamerzel, who retired earlier this year. In his new position, Colonel Britcher oversees six regional law enforcement offices with 95 full-time waterways conservation officers (WCOs) and supervisors and 117 deputy waterways conservation officers.
PFBC website: www.fishandboat.com

Colonel Britcher has been employed with PFBC since 1997 when he started his career as a WCO. In April 2008, he was named regional supervisor in the Newville office and was promoted to the regional manager position in February 2011. He has served as a Bureau of Law Enforcement instructor in handcuffing, weapons retention, HAZMAT, CPR and First Aid and boating accident investigations. In 2010, he and two other WCOs received the Bureau of Law Enforcement Award for Outstanding Service for their efforts in investigating a 2009 fatal boating incident on the Susquehanna River, Clinton County. Colonel Britcher started his Commonwealth career in 1993 with the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, where he counseled court adjudicated delinquent youth at the Loysville Development Center’s Secure Treatment Unit. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from West Chester University of Pennsylvania.
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Pennsylvania Angler & Boater - November/December 2012

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