On Monday afternoon, last minute shoppers shuffled the sidewalks around Wausau’s city center as the mercury topped 34F (1C) – a veritable heat wave for this time of year and, coincidentally, the perfect temperature for packing snowballs with volume and heft.
And inside the nearby city hall, a conversation has also been heating up – one that could shape the future of snowball fights in this central Wisconsin town.
Owing to a 1962 ordinance that forbids the launching of projectiles on city property, those participating in snowball fights have for decades risked a $114 fine, a law that earned Wausau the distinction of being dubbed the “worst town in America”.
But times may be changing. Last week, the city’s public safety committee voted to remove the word “snowball” from the local law but keep in place a language that forbids throwing projectiles, said city councilman Patrick Peckham, who was among those who voted to amend the ordinance.
The change would allow the police to cite scofflaws who heave snowballs or ice chunks with the intent to damage passing cars, but greenlight snowball fights between mutual combatants.
“So basically, if you throw a snowball at your buddy at bar time, you’re alright. But if you stand on the highway and chuck it at cars, then you’re in trouble,” Peckham said.
In a video in which Matt Barnes, the Wausau police deputy chief, savages the mayor’s head with a well-aimed snow missile, Barnes said the department has used the law to issue tickets just 10 times in the past 15 years, a number that includes fines for shooting crossbows, dropping sandbags off the roof of a downtown parking ramp, and throwing snow at passing cars.
But it’s the lax enforcement that councilman Peckham says created a need for clarity.
“The criticism has been, ‘That’s stupid. Why have an ordinance that’s not universally enforced? If you have an ordinance, either it’s illegal or it’s not.’ (The ordinance) was working OK for us, but it’s cleaner if you just remove the word ‘snowball’,” Peckham said.
Still, city council members weren’t prepared for the number of outraged phone calls the ordinance would generate after news outlets picked up the latest development, he said.
“The nastiness of it has been incredible,” Peckham said, adding that he hadn’t seen as much unexpected vitriol since the city cracked down on kids selling ice cream off their bikes.
One downtown shopper seemed especially offended when told about the local ordinance Monday afternoon.
“What liberal idiot created that law?” said one visitor, who declined to give his name. “Someone get their eye poked out or something?”
But Kacy Wickersheim, who works at a nearby daycare, said the proposed amendment seems like a fair compromise between safety and fun.
“If they’re throwing snowballs at cars or people who don’t want anything thrown at them, then it makes sense. But if it’s just kids having fun, then it’s a little silly,” she said.
Snowball fights in Wisconsin are serious business. Since 1923, students at the University of Wisconsin have squared off in organized combat at Bascom Hill. In 2009, when blizzard conditions shut down campus, almost 4,000 students appeared for battle and nearly broke the record for the world’s largest snowball fight.
Now that the plan to decriminalize snowball fights has passed the city’s safety committee, it will head to the Wausau City Council for consideration at a meeting next month and, Peckham said, its passage is likely.
