SEVERANCE, Colo. — A 9-year-old boy is trying to overturn a nearly century-old ban on snowball fights in his small northern Colorado town, and he already knows who his first target will be if he’s successful — his little brother.
“I think it’s an outdated law,” said Dane Best, who lives in the often snow-swept town of Severance. “I want to be able to throw a snowball without getting in trouble.”
Dane’s mother, Brooke Best, told The Greeley Tribune her son has been talking about snowballs since he found out about a month and a half ago that it’s illegal to throw them within town limits. The last time it snowed, Dane said he and his friends looked around for police and joked about breaking the law.
Kyle Rietkerk, assistant to the Severance town administrator, said the rule is part of a larger ordinance that makes it illegal to throw or shoot stones or missiles at people, animals, buildings, trees, any other public or private property or vehicles. Snowballs fall under the town’s definition of “missiles.”
“All of the kids always get blown away that it’s illegal to have snowball fights in Severance,” Rietkerk said. “So, what ends up happening is (town leaders) always encourage the kids with, ‘You have the power you can change the law.’ No one has.”
Then Dane took up the cause.
The boy is scheduled to argue against the ban at a town board meeting Monday night, and if he’s successful, his 4-year-old brother Dax had better watch out. When town board members asked Dane during a meeting in November who he wants to hit, he pointed directly at his little brother.
Dane and his classmates have written letters in support of overturning the ban on snowball fights, and he and his family have researched other Severance ordinances, including one that defines pets only as cats and dogs.
Dane has a guinea pig, which is illegal in Severance, too.
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Information from: The Tribune of Greeley, Co, http://greeleytribune.com
