If personal fireworks are part of your celebrations, your plans may go boom.<\/p>\n
At Monday night’s Committee of the Whole meeting, the City and Borough of Juneau started considering an ordinance that prohibits personal fireworks outside of specific days and times. If passed, it would also restrict concussive fireworks to locations outside of neighborhoods, make it illegal to sell fireworks within the borough, limit the volume of fireworks a person can possess and levy $500 fines for infractions.<\/p>\n
The proposal sparked robust discussion after municipal attorney Robert Palmer presented the draft. He said that he had worked with Assembly member Michelle Bonnet Hale to tighten the CBJ’s 2016 fireworks guidance, especially for concussive fireworks.<\/p>\n
Police talk fireworks and New Year’s Eve safety<\/a><\/ins><\/p>\n “The objective here is to create a code that allows showy fireworks within the fire service boundary and the concussive fireworks outside of that,” Palmer said. He noted that the proposal allows concussive fireworks north of Cohen Drive, north of the Douglas boat ramp and at Eaglecrest.<\/p>\n Palmer said the ordinance draft is modeled after the state code and a similar ordinance passed in Kenai.<\/p>\n “We need to solve the boom problem. It was bad this last year,” said Assembly member Maria Gladziszewski.<\/p>\n Assembly member Loren Jones, who chaired the meeting, emphasized that Monday’s review was designed to uncover questions. He said more discussion would occur before the assembly takes any action to move the ordinance forward.<\/p>\n “What I’ve heard from people is that the concussive fireworks are unpredictable as they have a huge shock value and cause the most consternation,” Hale said.<\/p>\n Assembly member Wade Bryson expressed concern over elements of the proposal.<\/p>\n “I think taking the concussive fireworks out of neighborhoods is acceptable to most residents. If we make all neighborhoods off-limits, you have a lot of people breaking the law,” he said.<\/p>\n