Walworth County, WI Public Conduct: Skateboarding Rules (2026)

Sec. 16-12 of the Walworth County Code flatly prohibits the use of skateboards, rollerskates and in-line skates on every parking lot, sidewalk and stretch of grounds the County owns, from the Government Center and Judicial Center campus in Elkhorn to the Health and Human Services building and the Sheriff's Office. The same subsection also bars bicycles from county-owned sidewalks and grounds, so a rider who dismounts and walks a bike is compliant while pedaling across county grass or a county walkway is not. The rule traces to Ord. No. 432-05/07 (2007) and was renumbered into its current slot by Ord. No. 692-10/11 in November 2011, sitting in Chapter 16, Article II, the article governing use of county-owned public property generally, alongside the county's separate firearms and knives prohibitions on the same buildings.

Three exceptions carve the ban back. Subsection (b) lets supervised educational activities at Lakeland School, the county's school for children with disabilities, proceed even if they involve wheeled equipment. Bicycles specifically are allowed on the White River State Recreation Trail, the county's paved recreational trail, and law enforcement officers may ride bicycles on county-owned grounds. Outside those three carve-outs, the prohibition applies uniformly across every parcel and building the County holds title to; it does not reach city, village or town-owned parking lots, sidewalks or parks, which set their own rules for their own property.