SEQUIM — Sequim City Council members will consider banning firework sales when they meet next week.
The public hearing will be at 6 p.m. Oct. 14 at the Sequim Civic Center, 152 W. Cedar St., to hear feedback from residents about whether a ban should move forward.
Those wishing to participate in remote public comment, via Zoom or by phone, are required to register on the city website at sequimwa.gov/1219/Submit-Public-Comments by 3 p.m. on the day of the meeting. Members of the public may provide in-person comments; written comments may be mailed to Attention: City Clerk, 152 W. Cedar St., Sequim, WA, 98382, or emailed to clerk@sequim wa.gov.
Sequim fire marshal Joel Dressel told council members that if a ban is approved, it would go into effect next fall, about one year after a vote.
Permitted fireworks sales currently are allowed from June 28 through July 5. If a ban is approved, sales would be allowed one last time in 2025.
The city code currently allows one booth per 1,500 people who live in the city. The first preference is given to local nonprofit groups that benefit youth and the second preference is for other local nonprofits.
If there is a high fire danger, the fire marshal has the authority to stop sales.
This year, three entities had booths in the city: Sequim Vineyard at Walmart, Seattle International Christian Church at Safeway and Big Dog Fireworks at Hardy’s Market.
Sequim prohibited the discharge of fireworks and sky lanterns in July 2017 after an advisory vote the previous year passed with 65.6 percent (2,642) of residents in favor of a ban.
A public display was developed as an alternative in the city at Carrie Blake Community Park.
Clallam County allows fireworks to be discharged only on July 4 in unincorporated Sequim, and only if there is not a high fire danger.
Dressel said in an email that if Sequim Municipal Code chapter 8.20 is amended, a sales ban would only apply to the sale of consumer fireworks but not “Trick and Novelty Devices,” such as Pop-its, Snap-N-Pops and Party Poppers, as they are not classified as consumer fireworks.
Discussion
In an August interview, council member Kathy Downer said she asked fellow council members for an ordinance to ban fireworks sales because she feels it’s misleading that, although fireworks sales are allowed, people are not allowed to discharge them in Sequim.
“It gives them a feeling they can shoot them off,” Downer said.
City staff said Sequim might be the only city in the state that bans the discharge of fireworks but allows sales.
Staffers in 2016 advised against allowing firework sales, but council members didn’t want to negatively impact nonprofits which operate fireworks booths.
On Sept. 23, council members did not address the issue directly but rather talked about how to get word out about the public hearing.
At the August council meeting, Downer and former Sequim school board member Jim Stoffer, who both attend Trinity United Methodist Church by Carrie Blake Park, said there were residents trying to light fireworks before and after the city’s public show by the church.
Stoffer, the church’s volunteer safety committee chairman, advocated then for a fireworks sales and said there should be more signage around the city in the mean time.
He said one family didn’t know it was illegal to discharge fireworks in the city.
Randy Cearley, an area manager for TNT Fireworks, said at the meeting that fireworks are a “hot-button issue” and it’s easy to do a complete ban, but it won’t work. He said Tacoma banned fireworks in 1992 and there’s been an influx of them being discharged in the city ever since.
Cearley, who said he works with two of the nonprofit vendors in Sequim, said he’d favor stricter penalties if people are caught, and for more education and signage across the city.
This year on July 4, Sequim deputy police chief John Southard said there were 11 fireworks complaints between 7 p.m. and midnight. Officers also received voluntary compliance from residents to stop, an action they seek from parties they contact about discharging fireworks, Southard said.
If necessary after verbal warnings and seizure of fireworks, residents could face a gross misdemeanor fine up to $5,000 or up to 364 days in jail, if they fail to comply with the fireworks ban, according to city code. Southard said they’ve never had an incident rise to that level in his tenure.
All of the fireworks-related fire calls for July 4 were in the city of Sequim, staff from Clallam County Fire District 3 said. No fireworks calls were in unincorporated Clallam County in the Sequim area, they said.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at matthew.nash@sequimgazette.com.
