SUN PRAIRIE, Wis. — Southern Wisconsin hasn’t seen more than a few snow flurries, but winter is still closer than we think. For Sun Prairie residents, the cold weather may be a bit more fun this year, as the city has amended an ordinance to now allow snowball fights.
A section in Sun Prairie’s municipal code states someone can be prosecuted for disorderly conduct or assault if they throw any type of dangerous missile, which is defined as an object, arrow or stone. Until Tuesday’s Common Council meeting, snowballs were also included on that list, something city leaders said was unnecessary and should be removed. Council members voted unanimously in favor of the change.
District 2 Alderman Brent Eisberner said when he became an alder in April of 2021, the first thing he did was read through the city’s entire municipal code. In doing that, he found several parts to be outdated, which is why he’s working to change them.
“There’s a lot of just antiquated ordinances in there that aren’t enforced at all, and quite frankly, if there’s something on there that shouldn’t be enforced, then why is it on the books?” Eisberner said.
One of those ordinances was the restriction on throwing snowballs. Eisberner said that even though the rule is rarely enforced, removing it sends an important message to the Sun Prairie community.
“I think children have had a lot of things taken from them in the last couple of years with the COVID pandemic, and all the restrictions placed on schools and gatherings and things like that,” Eisberner said. “So this is one way that I thought, it’s not enforced anyway, why is it on the books? Let’s let kids be kids and have a snowball fight if they want to.”
Eisberner said the ordinance is redundant, and in turn, unnecessary because if someone were to throw a snowball with malicious intent, there are already other ordinances and state statutes to prohibit that behavior.
He noted that he isn’t sure of the rule’s exact origin, but believes the city of Sun Prairie likely got a majority of its code from other municipalities. It’s something he doesn’t see as a problem, but rather, something that just needs to be addressed.
“There are numerous ordinances that need to be revised or updated,” Eisberner said. “And quite frankly, I don’t think anybody’s taken a close look at it recently. Thankfully, we have a new city attorney, and she and I have been working together to kind of bring ours up to speed with the current day. So I’m excited about the process. And this is just step one of an obvious change that can be made.”
RELATED: Development plan presented for site of deadly Sun Prairie explosion
Also at Tuesday night’s meeting, the council approved a development plan for a mixed-use building at the northwest corner of Main and Bristol streets. That proposal calls for building a four-story building with 4,000 square feet of commercial space and 110 dwelling units at the site of the 2018 explosion that killed firefighter Cory Barr and significantly damaged numerous buildings in the area.
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