A bill that would heavily restrict the use of fireworks in Charleston will advance to City Council for a final vote next week.
Members of council's Committee on Rules and Ordinances voted to recommend approval of the bill at its meeting Tuesday evening.
The bill would restrict the use of fireworks within Charleston to four days per year: Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day and New Year's Eve. City residents would be allowed to set off fireworks between the hours of 11 a.m. and 11 p.m., with the exception of New Year's Eve, which would allow them until 1 a.m.
City Attorney Paul Ellis, who drafted the bill, said Council will be able to amend the bill by adding or removing days that fireworks would be permitted before it takes a final vote at its meeting on Oct. 3.
"We're not wed to those days, they're just based on discussion among the fire department, police department and looking at some ordinances other cities have passed," Ellis said.
West Virginia's new fireworks law, passed this year by state lawmakers, permits the sale and use of consumer-grade fireworks, such as Roman candles and bottle rockets. It also gives cities and towns the authority to create their own restrictions on their use in city limits.
The law went into effect July 1, at the start of the Independence Day weekend, and most of the myriad complaints to city officials afterward were noise-related. Some residents didn't know if they were hearing fireworks or gunshots, Ellis said.
Under Charleston's bill, city residents could ask permission from the police chief to use fireworks for a special occasion on other days.
At Tuesday's meeting, Charleston Police Chief Brent Webster talked about how officers would enforce the new ordinance.
"I see it being enforced in one of two ways," Webster said. "One would be if the police officers themselves see it. If they see us coming and hide the fireworks, it's going to come down to, do the neighbors want to get involved?"
Webster said he still thinks the bill would be worthwhile. "We just need to make sure we explain to our constituents that it's going to be hard to enforce without the complainant being willing to testify," he said.
As with most misdemeanors, fireworks-related citations would be handled in municipal court. A person convicted of violating the fireworks ordinance could be fined up to $500 per violation. Those people could also can face fines for breaking the city's noise ordinance, which calls for a $100 fine for the first offense and a $100 increase for each subsequent offense.
If a resident is struggling with neighbors who are illegally lighting off fireworks, Ellis said the best thing to do is record video of the activity, along with the date and time it's taking place, so it can be used in court.
While the bill passed the committee unanimously, Councilman Courtney Persinger noted the city's frequent use of fireworks at public events such as West Virginia Power baseball games and Live on the Levee, which would be exempt from the proposed bill.
"I would hate for us to appear hypocritical in any way," Persinger said. "We definitely have city-sanctioned fireworks more than four nights a year." Still, he added that he's "100 percent on board with controlling the noise any way we can."
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