The Perry City Council at Monday night’s meeting will consider loosening the local laws on using fireworks over the Fourth of July, including a longer time frame for use and a lower penalty for misuse.
Last May, former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad signed a bill legalizing the sale of fireworks effective June 1, 2017, a schedule “not giving cities and counties much time to prepare for the June 1 start date,” according to Perry Finance Officer Susie Moorhead.
Like other cities and counties around the state, the city of Perry scrambled to accommodate the new law, with the Perry City Council amending the city’s fireworks ordinance at its June 5, 2017, meeting.
This week the council takes up a further amendment, recommended by the council’s public safety committee. The committee is composed of Perry City Council members Barb Wolling and Dr. Randy McCaulley and Perry Police Chief Eric Vaughn.
The current ordinance allows fireworks to be shot off only on July 4 from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. The proposed amendment would open this window wider, permitting fireworks use during a 10-day period from June 29 to July 8.
The proposed amendment would also removed the current prohibition on the use of fireworks “within 200 feet of a hospital or a senior care facility.”
Where the current ordinance imposes a $500 fine for violation of the ordinance, the amended ordinancem if approved, would lower the fine to $250, the minimum required by Iowa Code section 727.2(3)c(1), which says the violation of a city ordinance on fireworks is “a simple misdemeanor, punishible by a fine of not less than $250.”
Moorhead said the public safety committee recommended a simple fine of $50, but it is uncertain whether the state law would permit a fine of less than $250. City Attorney DuWayne Dalen is researching the question.
The new rules would not mean unlimited fireworks use during the 10-day period. Usage would be limited to the following hours:
- June 29 to July 3 from 4-10 p.m.
- July 4 from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.
- July 5 to July 8 from 4-10 p.m.
Between the state’s legalization and the city’s limited hours of usage, the number of complaints received by the department last Fourth of July more than doubled over previous years, according to Perry Police Sergeant Jim Archer.
Speaking to ThePerryNews.con in July 2017, Archer said, “Last year we received 20 calls between June 20 and July 5 — which included 13 calls on July 4 alone — while we had 49 total calls this year between June 20 and July 5.”
Moorhead said the public safety committee’s recomendations were made in light of last year’s experience.
“People were shooting off fireworks before the Fourth of July,” Moorhead said, “and the usage on the Fourth was really heavy. The public safety committee reviewed the ordinance and recommended the changes to assist with the enforcement of the ordinance.”
If the council amends some conditions of the current ordinance, other conditions will still remain in force. Fireworks will not be allowed to be used on any public street or sidewalk or in any park or cemetery and cannot be discharged “by persons over the legal alcohol limit or under the influence of a drug or narcotic.”
The Perry City Council meets the first and third Mondays of each month at 6 p.m. in the Clarion Room of the Security Bank Building, 1102 Willis Ave. in Perry. The meetings are open to the public.
