Damakant Jayshi
The Wausau City Council on Tuesday approved an ordinance that will impose restrictions on alcohol consumption in city-owned public facilities, including parks, for one year.
In addition to parks, the restrictions will cover playgrounds, athletic fields or courts and swimming or wading pools. The new rules, which begin Jan. 1, will not apply from 4-11 p.m., and to permitted special events, just like the existing restriction of open intoxicants at The 400 Block downtown.
Residents can also use alcohol at campsites, park shelters or facilities after reserving these through the Wausau and Marathon County Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department. The provision will not apply to Marathon Park, which is in the city but under the jurisdiction of Marathon County.
Violators can be fined $50.
The year-long sunset provision, which was not part of the original ordinance that the council discussed on Tuesday, was added upon the suggestion of Alder Doug Diny. He said he was reluctant to call the proposal a solution unless he saw results of the restriction.
The proposal came from the Wausau Police Department, which said that the alcohol abuse and resulting crimes in the parks were a matter of concern. Last month a joint meeting of the Parks and Recreation Committee and Public Health and Safety Committee approved imposing alcohol restrictions in the parks.
Police Chief Matthew Barnes said the goal is not to issue citations but to ensure that the parks and other public spaces are safe for everyone. The police will first urge compliance of the measure. He repeated what he said last month at the joint meeting of the committees: if the measure fails to achieve its goal, he will come back to the council and admit it didn’t work.
Some alders were uncomfortable with the ordinance, saying that many people love having a beer or two with their family and friends while spending time in the park. Alder Gary Gisselman said he would oppose the measure. The Wausau community cherishes its parks and loves having beer with friends in the afternoon but would now have to fear being watched and pay fines.
“If we have criminal activities in our parks, let’s deal with it,” Gisselman said. The alder added that they should look at the larger picture instead of nitpicking some issues and moving on to the next.
Alder Tom Kilian asked the police to submit some kind of periodic reports on citations issued and “interactions” between the police and residents to the City Council to determine whether any specific people or locations are being targeted.
“In addition to assessing the ‘effectiveness’ of this, what that data will ultimately do is we can map out…not just the geographical prevalence of those citations and interactions, but we can also glean other information about those interactions,” he said. He added that if the data during and at the end of the pilot program showed any documentation or citations involved 90% of homeless residents, that would raise a big red flag for him.
Police Chief Barnes said he could include those details in the report that the police department submits quarterly to the Public Health and Safety Committee. He added they would examine whether the measure has had any impact in changing behavior. Those reports won’t be “absolute” but would be able to help paint a picture moving forward.
Last month, Kilian asked that all parks be included in the ordinance and not just those in his neighborhood or near the downtown, saying they should not have two sets of regulations for two different areas of the city. Parks frequented by people with a higher income level would have been exempt from the proposal while people of color and with lower income would be more heavily impacted, creating a discriminatory environment that could even if that were not the intent of the original proposal.
Alder Lisa Rasmussen agreed with Kilian on the “optics” of the proposal then, saying if they considered the demographics of the people who will be impacted by the restrictions, it would send a wrong message. Moreover, it could be confusing to residents, given they could drink in one park at certain time but not at other parks at the exact same time, a point she made again on Tuesday.
That measure passed with four of the five members of the Parks and Recreation Committee, including Kilian, voting to advance the proposal and three of the five Public Health and Safety Committee who attended the meeting voting yes.
But on Tuesday, while Kilian voted in favor of the amendment on the sunset provision suggested by Diny, he later voted against the amended ordinance. Gisselman also voted against the provision.
The ban would be extended after 2024 if it is deemed a success.
