The City of Atlantic’s Community Protection Committee met Tuesday evening at City Hall to discuss the issues of fireworks within City Limits. The Committee members were looking to find ways to get around a bill the Iowa Legislature has approved, but that has not yet been signed by Governor Branstad. He has until May 22^nd to sign the bill into law.

Atlantic Fire Chief Mark McNees said the Iowa Firefighter’s Association has sent a letter to the Governor asking him to veto the bill, but the prospects for him doing so are not good.  The bill (Senate File 489), gives city councils and county boards of supervisors the authority to ban or restrict the use of fireworks, but it does not allow them to prohibit their sale. It also allows cities to restrict where fireworks are sold. Those rules would be based on zoning regulations in each city.

Mark McNees said ideally, he would like to see a ban on, or at the very least a limit, on the use of dangerous fireworks within the City Limits of Atlantic, but he acknowledged it would be tough to enforce. Councilman Gerald Brink and Atlantic Police Chief Dave Erickson had some comments on the prospects of that happening.

Councilman Dana Halder said businesses, such as Fareway, lots have already been approached by fireworks vendors wanting to set up shop in the form of a tent, on their property. McNees said the issue then becomes, who will inspect them? Fireworks vendors pay fees for inspections by the State Fire Marshals Office, but McNees said there isn’t enough funding for all inspections, nor enough personnel, so the responsibility will likely ultimately fall on local, certified fire chiefs or some a law enforcement agency.

McNees said there’s no way any local ordinances regulating the use of dangerous fireworks can be placed in effect before the sale of fireworks is allowed on June 1^st. But the Committee was in agreement that they could make it tougher for fly-by-night vendors to set up shop by raising fees and more.

Mark McNees said the vendors could easily make up those fees by the volume of sales. The consensus of the Community Protection Committee is that the best the City can do right now, is conduct more research into what other cities in Iowa are doing in preparation for the bill’s signing, and see if their tactics can be deployed in Atlantic.