A heavy rain that blanketed St. Joseph for the better part of two days kept skateboarders indoors — more effectively than a city law.

Originally, a city ordinance regulated skateboards, bicycles, in-line skates and similar devices. It stated that those devices couldn’t be used on sidewalks within a business district, in or around city parks (except where permitted) or in the city’s parking garages or lots. It also stated that skateboards and similar devices could not be used on any street.

Somewhere along the line, that last part was “lost” and for the last several years, riding a skateboard on the streets of St. Joseph was completely legal.

Sgt. Richard Wall with the St. Joseph Police Department recently witnessed an event that would change all that.

“I was out eating with another officer and saw a young man on a skateboard ride through a busy intersection,” Mr. Wall said. “He hit a rock in the middle of the intersection, which stopped his skateboard, and he went off and hit his chin on the curb.”

Mr. Wall discussed the legality of riding a skateboard in the street when he discovered that the section regarding riding on a street was no longer in the ordinance. Mr. Wall said he discovered that in the late 1990s, a group of families petitioned the original ordinance and had the section repealed regarding skateboards on public streets.

Mr. Wall then found a copy of the original

ordinance, including the extra section for street laws, and sent it along with a statement to the City Council, where it was once again approved last month.

“There’s just no reason not to have it,” Mr. Wall said. “We have plenty of skate parks in town. The streets are meant for cars, not skateboarders.”

Mr. Wall also mentioned the fact that there are no laws regulating the age one has to be to ride a skateboard.

“A 5-year-old could have been riding down the street on a skateboard,” Mr. Wall said.

Megan Tilk can be reached

at megantilk@npgco.com.