IN the News: Fontana Piro Fans will Be Comming to GT

Fontana bans use of fireworks

11:20 PM PST on Tuesday, January 23, 2007

By MICHAEL MELLO

FONTANA - Future Independence Day celebrations may lose a lot of their pop.

Casting aside overwhelming opposition, the City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday night to ban the sale and use of fireworks within the city.

"People are not generally happy with this fireworks thing," Acquanetta Warren said. "They're not here tonight, but they're watching (on television), and they're saying 'amen.'"

Councilman Frank Scialdone added: "I cannot rationalize raising money and putting people in jeopardy ... even for a good cause."

The council needs to vote in favor of the ordinance once more at a future meeting before the ban could start on July 5, 2008. The delay on the ordinance taking effect is designed to give organizations a chance to find alternative fundraising sources, Newsome said.

Violators of the ordinance could be fined $100 for a first offense and $500 for a second offense within the same year.

Fontana is one of the few cities in San Bernardino County to allow the use of "safe and sane" fireworks, the only type allowed for private use under California law. The others are Adelanto, Chino, Colton, Grand Terrace and San Bernardino.

Representatives of schools and service organizations pleaded with the council to vote down the ban, because shutting down the fireworks stands means cutting off one of the biggest sources of funding they have for their programs. Fontana passed an ordinance to allow fireworks sales in 1967, and more than 40 groups sell fireworks each year.

Daniel Sandt, band director at A. B. Miller High School, told the council it costs about $55,000 to send his marching band, drumline, and winter guard to more than 40 performances this year.

"Out of that, the district provides about $14,000," he said, telling the council he might have to cut out one of those band groups if the city outlaws fireworks.

The city has examined such a ban for more than a year.

Before the meeting, Vietnam veteran Richard Tirre, a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said it would be a huge blow losing the 50 fireworks stands the group normally operates within the city.

With that money, "We help some of the veterans who are down," he said assisting veterans and their families with bills if they lose their jobs or providing food for others. Fontana's VFW Post 6563 recently paid for a veteran's funeral because his family had no insurance, Tirre said.

"Without those funds, we can't help anybody out," Tirre said.

The Police Department reported it received 217 complaints to dispatch about fireworks in 2005. That number increased to 333 in 2006.

"Those numbers don't include complaints that went to other city departments," police Capt. Tim Newsome said in a presentation to the council. He added that more and more residents don't know which fireworks are legal and which are not.

Other speakers opposed the ban, saying the real problem is illegal fireworks, or those who were drinking heavily before setting off their pyrotechnics.

Lynda Dykes was alone in urging the council to ban the currently-legal fireworks.

"They've burnt my roof, my backyard, and destroyed other things around my house" she said, adding people in her neighborhood gather in the streets to light them on the Fourth of July, oblivious to the traffic.

Reach Michael Mello at 909-806-3056 or mmello@PE.com.