Fireworks still on for holidays
Published 10:36 am Thursday, December 11, 2008
By Dennis Box-The Courier-Herald
Bonney Lake City Council members passed a new ordinance concerning the sale and use of fireworks inside the city.
Ordinance 1235 passed unanimously at the April 24 meeting.
According to Councilman Dave King, who wrote the update of the ordinance, the city's code concerning fireworks had not been rewritten since 1982.
The Washington state code was revised about three years ago.
“Our old code was not consistent with state law,” King said. “I started to write it and I had to trash the old code and start over again.”
The new code affects only city residents and restricts the sale of fireworks to June 28 through July 4.
The code allows the use of fireworks from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. July 3 and July 5 and from 9 a.m. to midnight July 4. Fireworks can also be discharged beginning at 6 p.m. News Year's Eve through 1 a.m. New Year's Day.
King noted public opinion ranged from residents who wanted a complete ban of fireworks to those who want no restrictions.
“I thought we had to come up with reasonable restrictions,” King said. “There are people who enjoy fireworks.”
The measure will allow for stands to be located 100 feet apart if there is a road or street, either public or private, between the stands.
Some of the council members wanted the city to enact a 500-foot restriction between stands, but King said the city could not write code more restrictive than the state law, which calls for 100 feet.
Another sticking point in the measure that came up earlier in the process was a section of the ordinance allowing the mayor to ban fireworks after getting advice from the fire chief and chief of police.
At the April 10 workshop Councilman Dave Bowen said he thought it ceded too much power to the mayor's office and added, “this is a backdoor way to ban fireworks.”
The council decided to change the provision allowing the City Council to issue a ban on fireworks in the city or for a particular area based on advice from the mayor. The mayor would consult with the fire and police officials before recommending a ban.
A third part of the new code allows the police to confiscate and destroy illegal fireworks rather than write a citation or arrest a person.
“This allows the police the ability to get the user to surrender the fireworks and dispose of them,” King said.
According to King, the city will send out information on the city's fireworks laws in May or June.
Dennis Box can be reached at dbox@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/courierherald.
