Wausau Common Council Approves a Controlled Access Point at City Hall

Thursday, April 13th, 2023 -- 9:00 AM

(Mike Leischner, WSAU) Wausau's City Hall will no longer be a wide open, accessible building.

According to Mike Leischner with WSAU, the city council voted Tuesday to remodel the entrance to include bullet resistant glass and a controlled access point. Alder Lisa Rasmussen said this isn't the ideal route, but today's world requires it.

"People's actions have caused this either here or elsewhere. We're living in a society now where we have to admit that not everyone who comes to City Hall is happy about things and they don't necessarily always leave happy about things."

"The behaviors of certain individuals have necessitated a heightened level of safety. Before it was cautionary, but now it's a necessity and so, sadly, those events have pushed this forward."

Police Chief Ben Bliven said the idea of securing city hall has been out there for 15 years and further inaction could lead to a tragedy. "We can't go a day in this country without seeing a shooting in a building and we need to do this."

"It is an emergency and it is a priority and I really, really think you need to fund this and do it immediately. What I would hate to see is the City Council, yet again, fail to fund a project like this and there be tragedy in the building that impact this community for decades."

Mayor Katie Rosenberg got emotional while saying she's had to have people removed from the building on the weekends when it's supposed to be closed, and in some cases people have been arrested in her office.

"We've had a couple of people who've had to be arrested, from my office, because they're threatening. We've had a couple people that have needed to be flat-out arrested because we just didn't know what the heck was going on."

The project will cost just over 183 thousand dollars from the city's general fund, no timeline for when the work will be completed has been given.

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