Friday, July 19, 2024
BRIDGEPORT – The days may be numbered for fireworks within the city limits following comments from residents and the Douglas County Sheriff at the regular monthly meeting of the city council on July 17.
Irresponsible and all-hours incidents of fireworks use combined with the high risk of fire caused by their use hit a responsive cord with Mayor Sergio Orozco and council members.
Resident Deborah Schopp, who has the perspective of 43 years living in Bridgeport, asked the council to consider a total ban on fireworks following the latest July 4 abuses.
“So here we were, in an excessive heat warning, high fire danger, burn ban in effect, fire was already burning in Douglas County, a level two evacuation notice at the top of the hill going to Mansfield, county resources already stretched to the limit – and yet illegal fireworks are allowed? How does that work,” Schopp asked.
However it works, it appears it will work much differently - and soon - after Sheriff Kevin Morris added law enforcement’s perspective.
‘I would have zero problem banning them,” said Morris, who is also a Bridgeport resident. “The question I ask myself is why you would not. It is dangerous, it is a breach of peace, what is the purpose?”
Morris also explained that a total ban would make enforcement much easier by eliminating the case-by-case examples where deputies must decide whether a violation is questionable, a kid’s mistake, citable, or an otherwise arbitrary enforcement issue.
“If it’s banned and everybody knows it, it’s never a mistake,” Morris said.
Resident Avis Anson reminded the council that Bridgeport attracts fireworks users from other cities that disallow them.
“We are the only place beside Rock Island that allows it,” said Anson. “So, we are not just getting people from Bridgeport, we are getting everyone else who comes here and sets them off. And they get away with it.”
Anson supports a total ban with some teeth in the penalties for violators.
“We need to make it so they can’t get away with it,” said Anson of banning both fireworks possession and sales. “Anyone who brings them over here gets a hefty fine. We need to make it a big thing.”
Fire department volunteer Javier Aguilar told the mayor that the department responded to more than a dozen calls and several fires on July 4.
Councilmember Paul Anson related his own experience involving fires on his property and two police reports he made concerning a neighbor's careless fireworks use. A passing motorist spotted the fires near a wooden fence and lumber and helped extinguish them. Anson speculated about what might have happened had he not been home and the motorist not happened by.
A section of the current Bridgeport Municipal Code Chapter 8.16 regarding fireworks discharge reads:
No person shall discharge or otherwise use any consumer fireworks within the city, except between the hours of one p.m. and 11:59 p.m. on July 3rd and July 4th, and between the hours of six p.m. on December 31st and one a.m. on January 1st.
Residents reported that fireworks were still being set off the day before the council meeting.
“This is something that we are probably going to have to look into,” said Orozco.
“We would need to do an ordinance to change it,” said councilmember Matt Schuh.
After more public comment, Schuh recommended that the council request that city attorney Julie Norton draft a fireworks ban ordinance that can be ready for action at next month’s council meeting.
“We can get on it right away and have it in effect sooner rather than later,” Schuh said.
Mike Maltais: 360-333-8483 or michael@ward.media
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