The Kokomo Common Council threw cold water on the idea of enacting a fireworks ordinance that would restrict what days and times residents could use fireworks.
At an informal meeting Monday, council members said they are skeptical on the effectiveness of an ordinance imposing stricter parameters on when fireworks can be used, arguing that it would be too difficult for police to enforce and likely wouldn’t deter those wanting to set off fireworks whenever they want to regardless of what the law is.
“You cannot enforce fireworks because you can’t get there to write the ticket when it goes off,” Councilman Tom Miklik, R-District 6, said. “Yes, it’s a problem. Yes, if you want to abuse it you will ... If it’s a problem I’m sorry, but at the end of the day, you gotta write a ticket, you gotta prosecute it, you gotta take it to court, you gotta pay a fine and you gotta prove it.
“What officer is going to get there fast enough and find out he just blew off an M80 that’s illegal, made too much noise on the decibel meter? I mean, it gets to a point of ridiculousness.”
A handful of residents asked the council last year to consider passing a more strict fireworks ordinance due to the uptick in fireworks use last summer. One resident said her block was “bombarded” with fireworks not just around July 4 and other holidays but for several weeks before and after and at all times of the day.
Jon Roberts, a resident of Indian Heights and also a county councilman, said he too was constantly bothered by fireworks last year and has been a vocal proponent of the city following other Indiana municipalities and imposing limits on when fireworks
can be set off in the city. He has argued that simply having a strict law on the books would be enough to deter most from setting off fireworks on days other than holidays.
Indiana is extremely lax when it comes to when residents can light fireworks, allowing for the activity every day of the year between the hours of 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., with an extended deadline of midnight on July 4 and other holidays, such as Memorial Day, Labor Day and New Year’s Eve.
State law, though, allows for municipalities to enact stricter fireworks laws. Many other cities have done just that but Kokomo has not. The city does have a noise ordinance, but the noise legal fireworks make is exempt from that ordinance.
Roberts recently sent a document to council members comparing Kokomo’s law on when residents can legally use fireworks to other Indiana cities, including Muncie, Indianapolis, Carmel, Lafayette and others. The other cities have restricted fireworks use to the couple of days leading up to and after July 4, the day of July 4 and New Year’s Eve, while Kokomo follows the lax state law and allows the use of legal fireworks every day of the year.
Last August, the town of Russiaville joined many other municipalities in the state and passed its own ordinance restricting the use of fireworks to certain hours on New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day and the five days before and after Independence Day, according to an ordinance posted to the town’s website. Anyone wishing to use fireworks within town limits on any other day needs formal permission from the town council.
Councilman Lynn Rudolph, R-District 2, said he would like to see figures on how well, if at all, Indianapolis, Carmel, Lafayette and others enforced their fireworks ordinances before considering enacting one in Kokomo.
“We got everything except the results from all these cities,” he said. “How many arrests were made, and how much time and effort do you put into it? If we want a thorough study, that’s what we need to find out.”
The uptick in fireworks use last summer was not unique to Kokomo. While most of the U.S. was in various stages of lockdown this past summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic, lighting off fireworks several weeks before and after July 4 became a common occurrence in cities across the country.
Councilman Jason Acord, R-District 1, said he believes what the community saw in 2020 in terms of fireworks use will be an anomaly.
“Say you put in an ordinance in saying no more fireworks, have we offended more people?” he said. “You gotta kinda ask yourself that question. It was a problem last year, bigger than I’ve ever seen ... It was excessive this year, but I think, and laugh if you want, it was all the money that was given out from the government and no one had any job.”
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