WAUSAU, WI (WTAQ-WSAU) — Participating in snowball fights has been legally risky in Wausau for decades, but that could be changing.
A 1962 ban on throwing projectiles in the city packs snowballs in the same category as rocks and other dangerous objects. But after recent negative national attention over the rarely addressed ordinance, the city may be pulling snowballs from that list.
The city recently released a video of the mayor and police pelting each other with snowballs, and the city council will consider decriminalizing snowball fights next month.
The ordinance is designed to prohibit the throwing or shooting of projectiles like arrows and stones.
The listing of snowballs as an example of the ordinance caught the attention of media outlets from Minnesota to New York, leading some of them to name Wausau the “least fun” city in America.
Committee chair and District 7 Alder Lisa Rasmussen says she hopes to prevent a similar situation from happening in the future. “Every second or third winter we’re not going to have this crazy news cycle again.”
