Streetsboro won’t ban fireworks after all

Despite some residents asking city council to ban or at least restrict fireworks in Streetsboro, city leaders on July 14 opted to do no such thing.

Council Member Marianne Glenn said she put the item on the July 14 Safety Committee’s agenda because she had received “a number of complaints” from Ward 1 residents regarding fireworks being discharged outside of the allowable days with booms loud enough to shake homes.

Ohio law permits people to discharge fireworks on a number of days, including from 4-11 p.m. July 3, 4 and 5, and the first Friday, Saturday and Sunday before and after July 4. Aerial fireworks cannot be discharged within 150 feet of spectators or buildings, and non-aerial devices cannot be discharged within 50 feet of spectators and buildings. No one under the age of 18 is permitted to handle or discharge fireworks or to be within 150 feet of the discharge site.

Except for not mentioning the 150-foot or 50-foot rules, Streetsboro law mirrors state law. And police can cite violators under state law, Mayor Glenn Broska said.

Though Glenn advocated incorporating state law into Streetsboro’s ordinances, the city has nothing to gain from enacting a city code that mirrors state law, Council Member Steve Michniak said.

“The act you seek to ban under the city code is currently illegal under state law, so it’s already illegal. … It’s just not being enforced,” he said.

If city leaders want to regulate fireworks, they should ban them outright or leave the ordinance as it currently stands, Law Director Joe Grandinetti said, noting that while the city has home rule authority to regulate fireworks, most cities with that ability opt to ban fireworks altogether.

“If we want to enforce this 150-foot rule or 50-foot rule, it kind of creates the optics of a little bit of unfairness, if you ask me,” he said, imagining out loud a situation where one person could be cited and another left alone. “I don’t think you want to get into a situation where you’re having police officers on the fly decide to charge.”

A dog owner himself, Michniak said he understood why pet owners would object to fireworks. Dog owners, he said, must learn to live with their animals’ distress or desensitize their pets to the noise.

“It’s a celebration of American freedom. If you don’t like it, I understand that. But do what you can to protect your dog. But I don’t think the entire city should have to suffer because you have an overly sensitive dog,” he said.

People that launch fireworks when and where they shouldn’t will ignore the law anyway, he said.

“The only people who are complaining are those who “don’t have a ton of problems in their lives, that get overly focused on this stuff, and they need to prioritize what’s going on in their lives if their biggest problem is a pop 100 yards away that they’re just not happy with. And that’s just the cold hard truth,” he said. “This is a problem that really doesn’t exist in this city other than on Facebook, and people getting pissed off that they have to listen to a pop.”

Chiding Michniak for not respecting citizens’ opinions, Shawnee Trail resident Rodney Flauhaus said fireworks going off in early hours of the morning are a hardship for some people and pets. The current restrictions are ineffective because everybody, including police, ignore them, he said.

“If we’re going to have restrictions until 11, and people can still set them off at any time, what’s the point of having any laws on the book?” he asked.

Asserting that he does not support an outright ban of fireworks, Flauhaus suggested that city leaders impose enhanced restrictions or a permit system of some kind. Quality of life, public safety and fire concerns are legitimate, he told council members.

It’s not easy, Council Member Jon Hannan cautioned.

“All of us could compromise and say this is the greatest firework code that we can put into place, but the moment we all walk out of here, people are going to shoot them off on whatever day they want to, and we don’t necessarily want to have, or have the manpower for the police department to chase down fireworks,” he said.

A longtime police dispatcher in a neighboring city, Council Member Jen Wagner said people still flout the law in communities that allow fireworks. Police cite law breakers when they can, but “it’s a vicious cycle of a process, no matter what we do,” she said, acknowledging that there seem to be fewer problems in communities that allow them.

Also a dog owner, former Council Member Mike Lampa said he doesn’t mind sedating his dog once a year, but objects to having to do it more often. He asked council for a law allowing fireworks only on the weekend of July 4, with a 10 p.m. end time. He also asked that the law should stipulate that fireworks could not be discharged on city sidewalks or streets, as, he said, is now a commonplace occurrence.

Grandinetti said setting off fireworks on sidewalks or streets is already illegal, and Police Chief Tricia Wain said enforcing fireworks law is among the most difficult tasks police have. It is all but impossible to prove who is actually setting them off, and picking which fireworks calls to respond to is also an issue when police are faced with multiple other calls, she said.

Recalling his 15-year career as a municipal prosecutor, Grandinetti said he only dealt with two fireworks cases in that entire time frame. Both received fines, he said.

“Our code does call for an M-1 penalty, $1,000 and up to 180 days in jail. I can’t think of any judge in the state of Ohio that’s going to do more than just give someone a fine, and say, ‘pay a fine, get out of here and don’t come back,’” he said.

Correction: An earlier version of this article identified the city law director as the former law director David Nott. The current law director is Joe Grandinetti.