Wednesday, January 24, 2007

COUNCIL VOTES TO BAN FIREWORKS!

Casting aside overwhelming opposition, the City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday night to ban the sale and use of fireworks within the city.

Representatives of schools and service organizations pleaded with the council to vote down the ban, because shutting down the fireworks stands means cutting off one of the biggest sources of funding they have for their programs...
Read the rest of the testimonials from people who gave up their evening to explain to the Council how the ban will hurt their fundraising efforts. Everyone from high school band members to veterans in need will suffer, and as we've been saying all along and some of the speakers confirmed, the problems come from lawbreakers shooting illegal fireworks.

Their pleas fell on deaf ears.

Only one person from the community spoke out in favor of the ban, claiming fireworks burned her roof. Left unchallenged was how that could have been done with any of the newly-banned fireworks, since State Approved Fireworks (SAF) DO NOT FLY UP IN THE AIR.

All is not lost--yet. First, the nonprofit groups will still be able to sell fireworks in the 2007 and 2008 seasons--the ban will go into effect after that. And don't forget that fireworks bans have been successfully challenged in the past.