South
Portland to consider outright ban, Scarborough may amend fire code
REGION — With a Portland ordinance that bans the sale and use of
fireworks as a model, South Portland’s City Council met in a workshop session
Monday and agreed to fast-track similar restrictions.
Scarborough, on the other hand, is taking more of a
wait-and-see-attitude. Although the Portland ordinance was unsheathed at an
ordinance committee meeting Monday, the Scarborough Town Council debated the
issue Sept. 7 and seemed inclined to let a new state law permitting use to go
unrestricted by local ordinances or permits.
On July 1, Gov. Paul LePage signed into law a bill that
legalizes the sale and use of so-called “consumer fireworks” – any number of
small combustible devices not including “missile” products, such as bottle
rockets, skyrockets and aerial spinners.
The law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, contains some
restrictions on the sale of fireworks, such as a provision on how retailers
store them, but allows use any day of the year, on private property, from 9
a.m. to 10 p.m. On July 4 and Dec. 31, use is permitted until 12:30 the
following morning.
However, the law does have an “out,” which says any
municipality may enact local restrictions, up to and including an outright ban.
South
Portland
At Monday’s meeting, South Portland Councilor Tom Coward
predicted most, if not all, of Maine’s coastal communities would enact bans,
effectively locking in the status quo.
“There is going to be a north-south split on this like
you have never seen,” he said.
The race to chase Portland in banning fireworks appears
driven less by a need to beat the Jan. 1 date of enactment than an effort to
beat down the flames of retailer interest.
Scarborough Town Manager Tom Hall said he has received
four inquiries already from people hoping to open a retail fireworks store,
while South Portland City Manager James Gailey said he, too, has fielded
“several” calls from commercial real estate agents interested in opening
fireworks stores in the area of the Maine Mall.
Gailey said the calls he’s getting may be from the same
people who’ve spoken to Hall and other area managers
“They’re probably kicking the tires of a lot of
communities,” he said.
Gailey asked “for the thoughts of the council,” and got
an earful.
“Who’s going to shoot these off?” asked Councilor Maxine
Beecher, rhetorically. “I’ll tell you what, it’s kids.
“Truthfully, lots of kids have lost eyes and other parts
due to this very issue,” said Beecher.
All seven councilors were firmly against allowing the use
of fireworks in South Portland, based primarily on the congested nature of city
housing, while five also took solid stands against allowing them to be sold.
“These are not benign things,” said Coward, who staked
out the most liberal position, saying he could go along with allowing the sale
of fireworks, based on the same principal that someone can buy a rifle in South
Portland but not fire it off within city limits. However, Councilor Tom Blake
said “it would be hypocritical” to restrict use without a similar chokehold on
retail sales.
Blake’s larger concern, however, was that municipalities
must deal with the issue at all.
“I think we would be better off putting our energies into
working with our representatives to get this overturned,” he said. “We
continually see issues come before this body to take on responsibilities the
state is skirting.”
Blake then went on to predict a chaotic, patchwork
pattern of fireworks being legal in some towns, and not others, creating added
work for local police departments.
“If they are selling it in some landlocked community,
they are going to be coming over to our beaches to let them off, because that’s
the cooler place,” predicted De Angelis.
“There are so many calls already,” said Police Chief
Edward Googins, “and oftentimes we get there a day late and a dollar short,
after all the fireworks have already gone off.”
Googins then added his voice to the chorus created by the
council.
“It’s a safety issue and a quality-of-life issue,” he
said. “I will be devastated as a police chief to have to tell elderly people in
this community that that is now legal and we cannot do anything about it.”
De Angelis said that, with all of the council apparently
on board, the fireworks ban likely will get a first reading at the Sept. 19
council meeting. The only change requested by councilors was to increase fines
for repeated violations, to $800 for a third offense, from a starting point of
$400, which the city’s attorney, Sally Daggett, said she already had hiked from
the Portland model.
Scarborough
In Scarborough, Police Chief Robert Moulton said of
fireworks, “It already is an enforcement issue.” At Monday’s ordinance
committee meeting, Moulton said his officers responded to 60 complaints on the
issue in the fiscal year ending June 30.
That prompted Councilor Karen D’Andrea to bring out
copies of Portland’s proposed ordinance.
“We know that kids are playing with these things,” she
said. “The best way to protect everybody is to not use them at all. We don’t
have to accept the state’s rules. We can ban these.”
D’Andrea’s action appeared to be a response to the Sept.
7 council meeting, at which Hall had said that, after consultation with his
department heads, he had elected not to propose any action. The only immediate
reaction to the legalization, said Hall, is a request from Fire Chief Mike
Thurlow to require a sprinkler system in any building that houses fireworks,
regardless of size.
Most of the council appeared to agree with that
minimalist course.
"I'm of the mindset to say, let's wait and see what
happens in a year before we make any earth-shattering, strict ordinances,"
said Councilor Richard Sullivan.
Still, D’Andrea stumped for an immediate ban, preferring
to let other communities test how the public would react to its newfound
firework freedoms.
“Let’s let other towns that decide to have fireworks have
them and see what happens there,” she said. “In the meantime, we can sit back
and observe, and maybe we will find that we’ve done the right thing, and there
are too many accidents and fires. Why should we let our citizens be the guinea
pigs?”
“I suspect fireworks will be allowed to be used and sold
in neighboring communities,” said Hall. “So, regardless of what we do, it’s
naive to think that it’s going to stop at our borders. The same kinds of issue
that Chief Moulton and his crew have dealt with in the past will continue to be
there.”
“Well, just because people don’t follow the law doesn’t
mean that we shouldn’t have laws that protect the public,” said D’Andrea.
In addition to concern about fire and injuries, some in
Scarborough also worry about the noise, a side issue alluded to in South
Portland by Googins.
Scarborough Councilor Carol Rancourt closed on the
ordinance committee meeting by noting how far the booms and pops of fireworks
can carry.
“If we’re going to allow fireworks 24/7, then I’m going
to let my dog bark 24/7,” she joked, which effectively closed the meeting.
Rancourt and others on the committee did request
additional data from Thurlow, as well as from Michael Mahoney, a Portland
lawyer who does lobbying work for the fireworks industry.
The committee will return to the fireworks issue at its
next meeting, scheduled for Sept. 26 at 4:30 p.m.
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