Western Illinois Town Forbids Ice Skating During A Certain Time Of Year

In today's edition of very weird laws, we have Moline.

There are plenty of weird laws across Illinois (for both the state and cities in it) and the home of John Deere isn't immune. The Pantagraph and The Southern Illinoisan report that Moline has a very specific rule in place for a very specific time of year...with no explanation why.

This time of the year, ice skating is huge. Moline's Riverside Park Lagoon, Bettendorf's new permanent outdoor ice rink, and Davenport's The River's Edge all offer festive ice skating opportunities. It's cold outside, it's easy to come up with ice that's safe and skatable.

But for whatever reason, it's illegal to ice skate in Moline in June and August.

Notice it isn't June through August. I did some digging as to why this is a thing and I couldn't find anything to explain it. Maybe it's because they don't want nitwits trying to ice skate on obvious water? But would an indoor ice rink be okay? Are we trying to smush the festive stuff until later in the year? Either way, the ordinance finds itself listed among Illinois' weird laws.

I can verify that even indoor ice rinks get patchy to skate on in the summer and there's a lot that goes into maintaining the ice in the heat and humidity. But it looks like if you live on the Illinois side of the QC and want to try skating this summer, you'll need to come to Davenport.