Sparks flew during a Friday morning Clark County Council meeting, but it wasn’t the ordinance it approved allowing the sale of fireworks the week between Christmas and New Year’s that had area residents seeing red.
Nearly all of the dozens of angry callers instead voiced objections to the recent suspension of high school wrestling at Clark County schools.
On Thursday, school districts suspended all wrestling competition, practice and travel until Jan. 3 following Clark County Public Health’s recommendation. The recommendation came in response to more than 30 COVID-19 cases being detected among local wrestlers.
“I do understand, because I’ve received emails about these issues, that people are upset … but I’m going to limit comments today to the special ordinance,” Council Chair Eileen Quiring O’Brien said.
The interim ordinance to allow the sale of fireworks from noon Dec. 27 to 11 p.m. Dec. 31 was passed with councilors Gary Medvigy, Karen Bowerman and Quiring O’Brien voting in favor. As the council was originally scheduled to be off this week, councilors Temple Lentz and Julie Olson were unavailable for the Friday meeting.
The interim ordinance is for 2021 only and is set to expire within six months. County code will continue to limit the sale of fireworks from June 28 to July 4 each year. County code also allows fireworks to be discharged from 6 p.m. Dec. 31 to 1 a.m. Jan. 1.
For vendors and nonprofit groups that sell fireworks to raise funds for their activities, the five-day sale window will help offset earlier financial losses.
Jamie Howsley, an attorney for Winlock-based wholesaler Jake’s Fireworks, told the council “Opening up fireworks sales during this limited window will help those businesses and nonprofits that rely on that limited window of sales to recoup the costs and lower the inventory from last year.”
In late June, the county adopted an emergency fireworks ban because of the extreme heat, dry conditions and risk of fires affecting the Pacific Northwest at the time. It’s now been nearly 18 months since retailers were last able to sell fireworks.
Getting to the council vote took a bit of effort though. Despite repeated requests from the council, many callers continued to raise objections to the Public Health’s recommendations and other pandemic-related mandates. Several callers were cut-off mid-thought or mid-sentence as the county tried to steer the conversation back to the fireworks ordinance.
“You’re going to vote to approve fireworks so people can spend more money. For what? … Do you know how insane that sounds? There’s a public health emergency; it’s a legit emergency. I don’t think you get how much of an emergency is happening right now,” said one caller who was unidentified.
The county council agreed to hold a Board of Health meeting beginning at 10 a.m. on Dec. 21 to discuss the suspension of school activities, Public Health recommendations, pandemic mandates or any other topic of interest residents want to discuss.
Just under 20 written comments about the proposed fireworks ordinance were sent to the council prior to Friday’s meeting. Nearly all spoke against its passage.
“In today’s environment and with all of the public issues with noise, litter, fire risk and control, there’s no good reason for Clark County to continue to allow sales for personal use of fireworks,” said Vancouver resident Kathy Withem.
Withem also said information from a previous council meeting showed that only 40 percent of sales and tax revenue from fireworks sales stays in Clark County, and those benefitting most from the sales are vendors from outside of Clark County.
“The time for personal fireworks is over,” wrote Jean Kent, also of Vancouver.
Those objecting to the ordinance cited the risk of fires and injuries, noise, stress to veterans, pets and wildlife and the mess often left behind among reasons not to allow the five-day sale period.
“If you’re going to allow additional fireworks sales, you must increase funding, staffing and fines for offenders,” wrote Jim Jeffers.
Medvigy said he recognized and shared residents’ concerns about safety, adding the burden should fall on those buying and setting fireworks off. He also cautioned those ignoring county laws could find themselves with fireworks sales and use banned entirely.
“I think we have a razor thin majority that is allowing the use of fireworks to continue as they presently are. People need to follow the law; that is firing them safely, cleaning up after yourselves, and staying within the proscribed time period. Otherwise, eventually you’re going to lose the right to have fireworks,” Medvigy said.
Use of fireworks differs between jurisdictions. Several cities within the county allow fireworks on New Year’s Eve. However, the cities of La Center and Ridgefield do not allow fireworks discharge on Dec. 31. The city of Vancouver has banned the use of fireworks at any time within city limits.
County residents can find out if the use of fireworks is permitted at their address using an interactive map on the county’s website at https://clark.wa.gov/code-administration/fireworks. The website also includes safety tips for using fireworks and fireworks that are illegal to use in Clark County.
