A trip to a Ramsey County ice rink on Saturday could save residents with arrest warrants some time in the cooler.

From 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., judges, lawyers and sheriff's officials will be on hand at Aldrich Arena in Maplewood for the county's first-ever Warrant Resolution Event. People with a nonviolent misdemeanor Ramsey County arrest warrant can show up and have their warrants resolved — without the trip to jail that results in most warrant pickups.

In most cases, Ramsey County Sheriff Matt Bostrom said, those minor warrants will be wiped off the lawbreaker's records with a scheduled court date, a fine or even forgiveness.

There are about 8,500 to 9,000 active warrants out in Ramsey County, the sheriff said. About half of those are for nonviolent misdemeanors — unpaid parking tickets, disorderly conduct, petty theft. And half of those are more than four years old.

Those minor yet unresolved warrants can gum up the criminal justice system and lead to an unnecessarily costly and embarrassing trip to jail for someone who did something fairly petty.

Each warrant is expected to take a few hours to clear. Those who plan to attend should bring a photo ID, contact information for a person who can vouch for them and their warrant number. The sheriff's office is encouraging appointments by calling 651-266-9320, or people can just drop in.

Bostrom said he doesn't know how many of those responsible for the 4,500 outstanding misdemeanor warrants will stop by. "It could be 10, it could be 1,000," he said. Similar events elsewhere have proved successful.

The hope, Bostrom said, is that hundreds of people finally take advantage and clear their record.

"We've tried to make it as easy as possible."

Anne Millerbend, a University of Minnesota student reporter on assignment for the Star Tribune, contributed to this story.

James Walsh • 651-925-5041