Amid complaints from Chehalis residents, the Chehalis City Council on Monday opted not to change the city’s current fireworks regulations following a discussion at its regular meeting.
The main reason put forth by the council is that any changes made would take a year to go into effect, meaning if changes were made now they wouldn’t go in effect before July 4, 2023.
Some council members did express concerns they have revolving around fireworks.
“My preference would be a complete ban on fireworks,” said council member Isaac Pope. “I know that’s not going to be accepted, and my position is coming from my medical background and having the opportunity to see kids have eye injuries, lose fingers and have other injuries. That is my reason for saying I would prefer to see a ban.”
Pope added he doesn’t hear enough complaints from residents to warrant changing the ordinance and remarked that it would be too much work currently.
Council member Bob Spahr also stated the main complaint about fireworks is the noise but the main issue he sees with the fireworks ordinance is enforcement.
“Most of the noise is coming from fireworks that are already illegal. We can’t control that. It’d be really hard to control it,” Spahr said.
The current ordinance allows for fireworks to be used from noon until 11 p.m. on June 28; 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. from June 29 to July 3; 9 a.m. to midnight on July 4; 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. on July 5; and 6 p.m. to midnight on Dec. 31.
Sales are also allowed during those same times and dates with the exception of them having to end by 11 p.m. on July 4 and 9 p.m. on July 5. Sales are also allowed from Dec. 27 through Dec. 31 from noon to 11 p.m.
Chehalis resident Leah Vanasse attended the city council meeting and was one of the locals who has been asking the council to do something about the fireworks issue.
“When you’ve gotta get up early to go to work, it’s pretty hard when you’ve been up until one in the morning having to deal with this. I have to medicate my dogs constantly and I can’t do that every night. It’s unfair and wrong,” Vanasse said.
She first brought the issue up to the council after the July 4 weekend in 2021 but felt that she had been forgotten and wasn’t pleased with some of the reasons offered by the council in refusing to change the ordinance.
“I’m not really happy with the excuse of, ‘Well we would have to change the ordinance.’ Well that’s your job,” Vanasse said.
In her opinion, no one is thinking about veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or pets that get frightened when fireworks are set off, and she doesn’t buy some people’s reasoning that fireworks are patriotic either.
“It’s so disruptive, and I don’t even buy the whole B.S. argument that, ‘It’s all-American, it’s about America.’ I don’t see that being about America. It’s about you wanting to blow up things,” Vanasse said.
Aside from fireworks being set off late at night after the allowed times, Vanasse said they will also be set off in the morning just for the noise. It’s not just noise pollution that’s the issue, but actual pollution as well, she said.
“I went up on my roof and I have fireworks all over my roof from my neighbors,” Vanasse said.
Although Vanasse supports a complete firework ban, she understands that isn’t feasible. Her proposed solution would ban private firework sales but allow one big annual firework show put on by the city, which she said would help bring this issue under control in her eyes as well as improve public safety.
Despite the council deciding not to change the ordinance, Vanasse has vowed to keep bringing the issue up and is planning on bringing more supporters of her opinion to future council meetings.
