After listening Monday night to concerns expressed about this year’s excesses by private fireworks users, the Perry City Council formed a committee to study the matter further and possibly recommend changes to the city ordinance governing their use.
Kerry Corrigan of Perry, who has sold fireworks for four years at the Bellino Fireworks stand outside the Hy-Vee, spoke to the issue in the open forum portion of the council meeting.
“This hasn’t been an ordinary year, first of all,” Corrigan said. She said the cancellation of the city’s normal Fourth of July activities, such as the parade and entertainments in the park, gave Perry residents fewer outlets for their patriotic impulses, and four months of virus suppression made the community eager for an outlet.
Corrigan also listed a number of benefits that come to Perry from fireworks. She said more than 2,000 sales transactions were made at her tent alone, representing $8,462 in state sales tax revenues, part of which would come to Perry. She said about $9,000 in wages were paid to part-time workers selling fireworks.
Corrigan said the location of the Bellino tent in the Hy-Vee parking lot is good for business at the grocery store, “otherwise I don’t think they would continue to rent the space every year.”
Her final point addressed the rule of law and the personal responsibility of residents to comply with the city ordinance.
“Changing the ordinance, it’s not going to change the people who don’t follow the ordinance in the first place,” Corrigan said.
Kathy Holmes of Perry then spoke out forcefully against
“Friday and Saturday in our neighborhood alone was like a war zone,” Holmes said. “We were very fortunate our fire department was not called out, it was so dry. The police department did their very best, but you can’t be everywhere, and you can’t witness that John Doe set them off.”
She said she witnessed fireworks used too close to a long-term care facility and said the air quality the next morning was very bad. She also shared anecdotes of her friends and neighbors’ experiences and the suffering of pets.
“I think,” Holmes said, “we need to take a real strong look at just saying, ‘You want to buy fireworks? You find someplace out in the country that has a water supply ready, and you light them out there.’ The city does a wonderful job giving our citizens a fireworks display down in the park every year. They do a fine job. As a city we should be commended, so I don;t think we should have fireworks in the city any longer.”
Raymond Knapp of Perry also spoke in the open forum. He said he used fireworks in his backyard in compliance with the city ordinance but acknowledged not all Perry residents were equally considerate.
The council also received six written comments on the fireworks question. All supported stricter limits or an outright ban on fireworks within the city limits of Perry.
Fredi Juri of Perry said the area around her 18th Street residence “was way beyond prior years.” She said her “nephew probably would have thought he was back in Iraq if he’d been here.”
Mike Ware of Perry, the former city compliance officer, said “the use of fireworks in Perry has become worse each year. This year was the worst yet” near his Park Street residence. Ware formally requested that Perry “ban the use of fireworks and sale of fireworks within the city.” Like many other people, Ware appears unaware the city is powerless to prevent the sale of fireworks.
“It was absolutely horrible this year,” according to Denise Carpenter of Perry, who said her dog suffered during the holiday. “I have never had these issues as badly as this year was” near her Fifth Street residence, she said. “Our town cannot handle this, and it is a nuisance.”
Paula Secress said her Sixth Street “neighborhood was like a battleground with a constant barrage of explosives.” She said that “the severity was much worse this year” than last. “I think my rights to enjoy a national holiday have been taken away because I can’t even be outside, nor is it enjoyable to be, due to the noise and smell of the fireworks.”
Russ and Holly Moore of Perry wrote in opposition to the use of fireworks in town. Russ Moore said he was “totally against fireworks within the city limits” and Holly Moore said her dog “has been ill for 10 days following 48 hours of fireworks in our neighborhood” on Iowa Street.
Perry Police Chief Eric Vaughn said his department received 66 fireworks complaint calls this year, including three instances of property damage. He said three citations were issued, down from eight in 2019 and seven in 2018.
Vaughn said enforcement of the ordinance is very difficult when officers do not directly witness the violations. The time lag between a caller’s complaint and the officers’ response makes identifying the subject of the complaint nearly impossible.
After receiving the information, the council formed an ad hoc fireworks committee composed of Perry City Council members Dr. Randy McCaulley and Barb Wolling, who are also on the public safety committee, and Chief Vaughn. The three-person committee will look more closely at the issue and report to the council in the coming weeks.
People who use the term ‘war zone’ should not use it in comparison unless they have actually been in a war zone.
Totally agree. It is an odd complaint to make, especially when fireworks are supposed to celebrate the battles that we won and preserved our liberty, not recreate the horror and destruction of an actual battle. To invoke a “war zone” leads me to wonder if the complainer is upset at why we are celebrating as well as at the noise.
Three tickets were issued because the ordinance is impossible to enforce, and there were not that many people who needed to be ticketed because they celebrated too exuberantly. Our police are not tyrants, and these are the kind of tickets they are loath to write to their neighbors. Part of being in a community involves being understanding when other’s actions annoy us, not trying to punish them until they stop. The complainers are in the minority and perhaps if they do not like their neighbors and how they celebrate a national holiday, they should move instead of trying to get the city to crack down on them until they stop celebrating.