GRAND TERRACE: Fireworks ban on Nov. 2 ballot
10:00 PM PDT on Thursday, September 30, 2010
10:00 PM PDT on Thursday, September 30, 2010
Voters in Grand Terrace on Nov. 2 will decide a hot button issue for the city of 12,500 residents: whether to ban fireworks.
No organized effort has been mounted to win passage of Measure Z, which would ban the use, sale and possession of all fireworks, including the kind called "safe and sane," which do not shoot into the sky and explode.
Proponents say it is all about the fire risk during the tinder-dry summer.
Opponents, including a citizens group that wrote a sample ballot argument, contend that banning fireworks sales will cripple fund-raising efforts for Little League and youth soccer programs that provide recreation for as many as 450 and 800 kids, respectively.
They also contend that banning fireworks sales in Grand Terrace will only increase sales in neighboring Colton and San Bernardino.
The issue is so volatile that the Grand Terrace City Council declined to vote on a proposed ban, opting instead to leave the question to voters.
"My position is that I am elected to provide organizations and recreation for children to be busy and keep them healthy," Councilwoman Bea Cortes said. "But also I believe in protecting residents from any harm. I have two strong positions. I believe this is up to the voters."
At a council meeting in January, San Bernardino County Fire Department Battalion Chief John Salvate reported that at least seven brush fires and 10 investigations, including a fire that injured an 8-year-old boy, have been attributed to fireworks over a nine-year period.
JoAnn Johnson, a community activist, told the council she is concerned about the stress that fireworks put on pets. She said she would "be at the front of the line when an effort is made" by youth sports groups to raise money by alternate means.
Resident Ann Wade Hornsby argued at a council meeting that families in Grand Terrace can go to public fireworks shows in other towns and attend picnics on the 4th of July.
Councilman Walt Stanckiewitz, whose home in Running Springs was destroyed in a 2007 fire before he moved to Grand Terrace, favors a fireworks ban.
"Personally, and I stress the word personally, I am against it," he said of fireworks. "I know what it is like" to lose a home in a fire.
"I don't want someone in Grand Terrace to go through that because of someone else's carelessness," he said.
"The problem is, if you ban fireworks of all kinds, then the sale of (safe and sane) fireworks is also banned," Stanckiewitz said. "That's the conundrum that we are dealing with."
Major fundraiser
He said he pressed for the measure to be placed on the ballot so future councils could not vacillate on the question.
Ken Boardman, a businessman who recently completed a term as president of the Grand Terrace Little League, said his league and the local soccer league each raise as much as $10,000 a year by operating a fireworks sales booth during a week-long period leading up to July 4.
Proponents say in their ballot argument that the two sports leagues have raised $150,000 over the past decade.
Boardman said his league raised one-third of its operating budget in that one week.
"The whole fireworks thing was kind of pushed on us by the city," he said. "They wanted us to do it because they wanted to charge our kids for using the city parks for Little League and for soccer and stuff like that. That's why we started selling fireworks in the first place."
Stanckiewitz said the leagues have shrugged off suggested alternatives, including the possibility of holding casino night events that he says would generate as much as $5,000 in an evening.
"Casino night sounds good on the surface, but you have to get people to come out, and you have to have businesses willing to step up and sponsor tables and donate items," Boardman said. "Before the casino night, there is hours and hours and days and days of work. It's a good idea in principle, but we are all volunteers."
If the fireworks measure passes, Stanckiewitz said, "we have to find ways to help the two leagues raise money, or we have to figure out a way to cut their costs to the city."
If the measure fails, he said, "then our job is to continue to educate the community on fireworks safety, support the fact that fireworks will still be sold and continue to work with the sports leagues to try to find an alternative."
Reach Darrell R. Santschi at 951-368-9484 or dsantschi@PE.com
