Fireworks could be banned year round in Kent starting in 2017 if the City Council next Tuesday night approves a controversial new ordinance.
The council’s Public Safety Committee voted 2-1 this past Tuesday to recommend the full seven-member council approve the ordinance to ban fireworks on the Fourth of July. Kent’s current 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.
Voters approved a ban in an advisory vote to the council on the Nov. 3 general election ballot. A total of 10,017 (63.09 percent) favored a ban while 5,861 (36.91 percent) opposed it. The ban would prohibit the sale, possession and discharge of consumer fireworks.
“We asked the community to come to us and tell us ‘what do you think,’ ” Councilman Jim Berrios said at the committee meeting before he voted for the ban. “At over 60 percent, it’s a resounding message. It’s the emotional message that I have heard time after time over the last year and a half. We can’t ignore that. … The community has been very emotional about this issue, they’ve spoken to us and now it’s time for us to act.”
The council will consider the ordinance at 7 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall under the “Other Business” section of the agenda.
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 and ask for the advisory vote.
With reservations, Councilman Bill Boyce voted in favor of the ban at the committee meeting.
“I’ll vote for it to move it to the full council for discussion,” Boyce said. “I want to do some more homework to help me get where I need to go and make my decision.”
Boyce asked fire officials if a neighborhood could put on its own fireworks display and basically found out the permitted shows that are allowed require a pyrotechnician licensed by the state as well as a fire marshal inspection. 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, including events at the ShoWare Center, where smokeless pyrotechnics are sometimes used.
Councilman Les Thomas voted against the ban. He voiced numerous concerns, including the number of police officers it would take to enforce the ban as well as the one chance a year veterans can legally discharge fireworks to celebrate their fight for liberty and freedom.
He also questioned the need to adopt the ban now when according to state law, any ordinance adopted by a city that is more restrictive than the state shall have an effective date no sooner than one year after its adoption.
“This calls for a total ban and is happening very fast,” Thomas said. “This won’t take effect until July 4 of 2017. We’ve got eight months to process this, and I’m not sure why we are in such a hurry.”
Rich Brandau, of Kent, who served on the group that recommended voters approve a ban, told the Public Safety Committee on Tuesday what he thinks the council should do next.
“These are also the voters that vote you into office and I think it’s a slap in their face for you to say you asked us and we gave you our opinion and now you are saying you are going to do what you want to do,” Brandau said. “You said let’s put in the hands of the voters. The results are in and I think you should follow through with that.”
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