Sauk County, WI Public Conduct: Outdoor Smoking Restrictions (2026)
Key Facts
- Indoor rule
- No smoking in any county-owned or leased building
- Outdoor buffer
- Smoking discouraged within 15 feet of entrances
- Designated areas
- Required at Courthouse and West Square Building
- Health Care Center
- Board of Trustees sets its own resident policy
- Enforcement
- Sheriff, Highway Commissioner, Health Care Center Administrator
- Adopted
- Ord. No. 9-2024, effective Oct. 15, 2024
Summary
Sauk County bars smoking inside every building it owns or leases, with the Health Care Center's own Board of Trustees setting rules for residents there. Outdoors, County Code § 43.20 discourages, but does not ban, smoking within 15 feet of a public building entrance, and the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee must post a marked outdoor smoking area at the Courthouse and West Square Building.
(2)There shall be no smoking allowed in any building owned or leased by Sauk County except that smoking policies for residents of the Sauk County Health Care Center shall be established by the Sauk County Health Care Center Board of Trustees.(3)Exposure by nonsmokers to secondhand smoke should be minimized, and therefore, smoking shall be discouraged adjacent to or within 15 feet to a public building entrance. Smokers should be directed to designated outdoor smoking areas.(4)The Public Works and Infrastructure Committee shall designate an outdoor area at the Sauk County Courthouse and the Sauk County West Square Building as a smoking area, shall furnish it appropriately, and clear signage should direct smokers to their location. The Sheriff, Highway Commissioner, and Administrator of the Health Care Center are authorized to establish employee smoking areas that are not closer than 15 feet to any building entrance at the facilities under their supervision. While smoking in outdoor areas is not prohibited, employees and visitors to Sauk County grounds shall be encouraged to smoke in designated areas.
Full Breakdown
County Code § 43.20 governs smoking policy for every building the county owns or leases, including the Courthouse and West Square Building, and it defines smoking to include lit or activated pipes, cigars, cigarettes and electronic smoking devices such as e-cigarettes and vape pens. Indoors the rule is absolute: no smoking in any county-owned or leased building, with one carve-out, the Sauk County Health Care Center Board of Trustees sets its own smoking policy for the Center's residents. Outdoors the code takes a softer approach.
It states that exposure of nonsmokers to secondhand smoke should be minimized and that smoking shall be discouraged within 15 feet of a public building entrance, directing smokers instead to designated outdoor smoking areas. The Public Works and Infrastructure Committee must designate, furnish and sign an outdoor smoking area at both the Sauk County Courthouse and the West Square Building. The Sheriff, the Highway Commissioner and the Administrator of the Health Care Center each have separate authority to set up employee smoking areas at the facilities they supervise, again no closer than 15 feet to a building entrance.
The section is explicit that smoking outdoors on county grounds is not prohibited outright: employees and visitors are only encouraged, not required, to use the designated areas. The Public Works and Infrastructure Committee may adopt further policies to carry out the section. This provision, adopted by Ord. No. 9-2024 on Oct. 15, 2024, replaced an earlier building-only smoking rule and added the 15-foot buffer and the designated-area requirement county-wide.
Violations & Fines
Section 43.20 itself sets no dollar forfeiture for lighting up outdoors within 15 feet of an entrance; that distance is only discouraged, not banned, so there is no fine for stepping outside the buffer. The real teeth are indoors: smoking in a county-owned or leased building violates the outright ban, and county facility staff, the Sheriff, Highway Commissioner or Health Care Center Administrator can order a smoker off the premises or to a designated area under their supervisory authority.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I smoke outside a Sauk County building entrance?
Is smoking banned inside all Sauk County buildings?
Where are the county's designated smoking areas?
What happens if someone smokes right at a building entrance?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Sauk County
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