Kent City Council seeks voters views about fireworks ban | Election 2015

Residents can share their opinions on the Nov. 3 general election ballot about whether the city of Kent should ban fireworks.

Proposition 1 is only an advisory vote to the City Council. The council will use the results of the vote to help determine whether to ban fireworks in the city. Any new ordinance passed by the council would not apply to the city’s Fourth of July Splash fireworks display at Lake Meridian or any other permitted display.

The question on the ballot is:

“Shall the sale, possession and discharge of consumer fireworks be prohibited in the city of Kent?”

Numerous complaints from residents to the council over the last few years about fireworks going off in their neighborhoods before, during and after the Fourth of July caused the council to consider a ban.

Kent city code allows people to purchase and possess legal fireworks from June 28 to July 4 but fireworks can only be discharged from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. on July 4. Violators of the code must pay a $250 fine.

“The personal fireworks situation in Kent is clearly unmanageable,” according to a voters’ pamphlet statement by the committee for the ban. “As one of the very few remaining cities in the area still allowing private use of fireworks, folks from surrounding cities come to Kent to discharge their fireworks and leave behind a mess for someone else to clean up. A large portion of this year’s 38 citations went to people who don’t live in Kent.”

The committee against the ban wants no change in the law.

“The loud booms you hear, the pink sticks and other rocket debris that you find would still be common in spite of a ban,” according to a statement by the committee opposed to a ban. “Local regulations do not apply to sales on (Indian) reservations…. Don’t take away another freedom from families that celebrate the Fourth safely and sanely.”

Editor’s Note: This story has been corrected about when legal fireworks can be discharged in Kent.