Beatrice officials hold another round of fireworks discussion

BEATRICE – Unable to agree on a shortened time frame for fireworks sales and use, the city of Beatrice remains with its June 28th to July 5th period….at least for now.

The city council rejected, on a 2-6 vote….a proposed change that would have shortened the period to June 29th to July 4th.  This year, the city tried an expanded sales and use period after several years of allowing fireworks between July 1st and the 4th….at the urging of Councilman Tim Fralin.

"Point zero zero zero five percent of the population stood here and talked to us about their complaints. Out of 12,500 people, six people spoke. It took me months to get this on the request of a constituent. In a matter of boom, here we are trying to amend it, abolish, change the dates and everything else."

The number of people who opposed the expanded hours, may be misleading….since not everyone chooses to speak before a public body. Councilman Ted Fairbanks said he heard more complaints on the fireworks change than he has on many other issues….and he opposed the original expansion of hours.
"If we take one day off of this, you're going to be back here revisiting this again this year...because you're going to have the same number of complaints. If you add up the number of people who contacted me by e-mail, by phone or in person, I had over thirty complaints about this. That's a lot, in Beatrice."

Police response to fireworks violations are handled on a complaint basis.  Councilman Dave Eskra says there are a variety of opinions on the fireworks sales and use period.

"We've got both ends of the spectrum just up here at the council. We've got those people who would love it to be zero...some would accept two (days)....we've got people who are out there sellng the product who would love it to be ten....which is what the state allows." Eskra says about the only thing everyone can agree on is not allowing fireworks on July 5th.

Chris Cullison owns C-and-C Fireworks….and does public fireworks displays as well. He urged the city to stay with the expanded hours tried this summer, after what he called a banner year for his fireworks operation.

"Typically, you're not going to hear the positive....you're going to hear the negative. I had several people thank us, because before they were going out of town and they were not able to buy local, like we preach to our population." Cullison says discharging fireworks an extra day this year was related to stormy weather on the Fourth, which pushed off fireworks use to July Fifth.

As it stands now, the fireworks sales and use period remains June 28th to July 5th….but it appears officials will take another run at an alternative, perhaps shorter period.