By KALIN KROHE
Panhandle Post
At its Oct. 4 meeting, the Alliance City Council approved a municipal code amendment on third and final reading for the dates and times fireworks can be legally sold and discharged within the city.
The council amended the previously discussed ordinance from four days to five days.
Three residents of Alliance attended the meeting to voice their thoughts and concerns.
"First, council thank you for what you do for our city," Bob Neville said. "Each one of you, thank you. Brian [Mischnick] and council, thank you for opening up with prayer. Ordinance 2944 is going to affect three businesses in this community...two are nonprofits. One is owned and operated by a young family, one is an owner operated business. Is that a lot of businesses? No. But it is three businesses that will be directly affected by sales with this resolution. If we go to four days from ten in the next eight years there will be three years where they will be able to sell fireworks on Saturday and Sunday. Three years out of the next eight. Saturday and Sunday, probably the biggest days for stands...makes sense...[when] most people [are] around. Two other years, they will have one Saturday and or Sunday to sell, all the rest will be weekdays. So, not only are we shortening to four days of sale, we're shortening the weekends that they have available to sell down to three."
Neville said, this ordinance gets "personal on my part, not your part".
"My son and daughter in law own that one that is owner operated," Neville said. "Kevin and Roxanne Foster started the business. John [Foster] and Carly have now taken it over with Kevin and Roxanne being second generation [owners]. Our grandson looks forward to running that fireworks stand when he gets old enough. So, it'd be a third generation business. With this resolution, not for sure that this business will still be here for the third generation. Also John and Carly own another business in town, small business, which they enjoy and do very well at home along with the fireworks. They rely on this income for their family of three kids. They own a house in town. John's employed locally, part time. And then these other two businesses supplement their income. Going from ten [days] to four is going to drastically reduce that income that's available. I just ask you to remember those days that are available for sale, especially the weekends. And that you are affecting three local businesses. I just ask you to vote against this resolution, and keep it in ten days. Once again, thank you for what you do for our community. I appreciate it. Thank you for the time to speak."
Bob's wife Delinda then spoke to the council.
"I love the prayer because in the prayer it said that you ask God to do well by the people that live here, but also to do well economically," Delinda said. "I'm here to propose, we don't always agree. I would love if you have [a] compromise of seven days[for fireworks]. I feel like drastically going from ten to four is where it gets really bad. It cuts into the possibility of not having a business. There's one more thing I want to bring up. That in the last four years, there are 16 days in those four years if you're only selling for four days. So, only five of those nights were weather free. Weather free means no thunderstorm, no rain, no wind."
"And so in the business; I will let you know John Foster, he wasn't my first pick for a son in law and he's my favorite now," Delinda said. "He calls me and says, Delinda, could you pray because there's a big storm coming, because it affects him possibly losing merchandise. It does affect sales. And of course, it affects people being involved. And so that means less sales down. And so in 16 days, five out of 16, that didn't work. So you got to remember, not only you're taking it from ten to four, but now you're taking it from four, down to maybe one of those four nights into something without another slot. We can't control the weather, but we can just control a decision to take it from 10 to seven."
Delinda then gave her personal opinion with fireworks.
"I grappled with fireworks," Delinda said. "When I was raising my kids, I'd tell them, I'll give you $1 bill and let you go out and burn it. Because that's how much I liked it. I just felt like it was a waste of money. Here's the thing. It's a business. But our daughter and our son in law do really really well and are very responsible with that money. And they'll be here for a long, long time. So I hope that you would vote so that they can have that business, not only just for the fun of children in our community, but also friends."
Delinda's last comment was that her and her husband [Bob] would be happy to clean up fireworks after the Fourth of July.
"I'd like it noted that my phone number is (308) 760-3542. And Bob's is (308) 760-2462. And you can post those phone numbers on the city site for us to come and clean anyone's yard out in front. We'd be happy to go clean."
Next, Alliance Berean Church Worship Pastor Philip Hawkins spoke to the council.
"The last seven years I've been involved with a firework stand...five of which I've been the manager of that stand," Hawkins said. "So the first two, I helped with the one down at, as people say, the old Alco parking lot; that was before my time. I've lived here nine years, almost. And the last four years I've managed what used to be where O'Reilly's is now, the Black Cat stand. We're now across the street from Safeway. There was one year where I ran a stand, and it broke even. And I mentioned that because fireworks isn't a plug-and-play system. And fireworks isn't something you just get into, there's a learning curve. And a lot of times that learning curve, you're thrown in. And you just have to do your best. But year to year the same is true. So every year, it's like building up a new business, you have ten days to figure it out. And, you know, for Bellino's [fireworks], they kind of have it all systematized."
"But for us, I feel like a service role to people, people want our products," Hawkins said. "I don't cajole people into it, I try to make it affordable for them. I'm able to adjust our prices and new sales and things like that. I move things around. I run raffles, I do a lot in that ten days. By the time we hit four days left, I'm in the full swing of things. I have really like six days to kind of figure out what we're doing. And really those last three, four days to get it done. And so that may seem to you like well, then there you go, you have the four days. But we need that other time. I spend that time developing relationships with the people who come in and buy a handful of things. But they look at the top shelf, and they ask questions about our products. And so I build those relationships. And over the last several years, I've built quite a few relationships. In fact, I ran into a customer of mine the other night at Safeway, and talked to him a little bit about it. And my fear is that with four days, I will be thrown into the thick of it without much time to adjust. And it'll seriously diminish my ability to do what I've learned to do very well, I think, for being a youth pastor, for being a singer...just like the Bible."
Hawkins then told a story about a challenging time at the Berean Church.
"So about two and a half years ago now, we all faced different kinds of challenges," Hawkins said. "And that challenge could have really wrecked us, I think. But fortunately, our Senior Pastor [Glenn Johnson] had this idea in 2019, that we should start streaming our services. And so I said, okay, well, we need to update our system. We need a digital soundboard, we're just not gonna be able to do some of this stuff without some investment. And because of the firework stand, I was able to update our system before 2020 came around, not knowing that we would have some issues, not knowing that 2020 will be what it was. And so we were ready for that, because of the firework stand. We went from 50 views typically on our YouTube channel a week...up to, on average, probably 275 to 300. Our Easter service that year had 600 views. We were serving the community and that's what we're here to do. And the fireworks stand that may seem like, gosh, you know, you guys should be able to be building and building, but we're still stewards of people's money. And so there are certain things that our leadership and myself included, would say, gosh, you know, is this a good use of the money that's in our people's heart? And so I've said, okay, I'll go out and go above and beyond and make some extra money so that we can invest in some of the technology."
Hawkins said some of the firework stand money was used to take children to camps.
"This last year, our new Youth Pastor [James Lake] decided to go full time. He gets paid part time from the church, and he's raising support to go full time. And he was making that transition in July. I was able to hire him and pay him his additional salary and make up for the gap for that month while they were unable to raise some money. The plan is to still raise more money to buy a church van, bus, something like that so that our Youth Pastor doesn't have to drive around town in his little sedan, and pick up students going around for an hour. Then we can use it for other things like student trips, and things like that. But that's where this money is going. It's going to serve people. And, you know, I'm not like the Fosters where I have an investment, it's not going to break the bank for me whether this [ordinance] goes through or not. In fact, I'll have more time for my family. So to me, it's not a personal thing. It is in that it has been a huge help for me to do the ministry that I love to do and that I feel called to do, and it's helped me do that. And I don't know that I can do quite as well. We'll try, you know, I'm not going to give up. But with four days, I just don't see that. I see that being harder than you may think. So you know I don't envy your position where you guys were at and I'm sure you've gotten a lot of phone calls. And I hope you've prayed, you've weighed what is the right thing to do and not just, do I like fireworks or do I not like fireworks. You know, do these, you know few people that have called you know...and as we all know the squeaky wheel sometimes gets the grease and it's hard to balance those things out and try to figure out what is right for this community."
"I can tell you that there are people who are way on the other side of this and say ten days, all the way...fireworks is about America, it's about freedom, it's about peace," Hawkins said. "It's about the fact that we don't have bombs bursting in the air anymore, it's fireworks. And we're celebrating freedom, you know, and that's important to people, that's meaningful for people. But I also understand that there are people who have fought for that freedom and who are struggling, and who, when they hear those fireworks going off, it's hard for them. I understand where pet owners are coming from as well. And that's hard to balance. But that's what I think most of us, at least personally, that's where I've come to this is that I feel like there is a balance, there is a compromise that hasn't quite been put on the table yet. But that's what I would like to see put on the table, seven days. So that's where I stand. I feel like there's a compromise in the air. And I think that would say to the people who are on both ends of the spectrum, that, hey, you've heard and we're willing to listen to both sides and meet in the middle. And you know, maybe a few years down the road. We revisit this, and maybe come up with some different search."
Councilman John McGhehy said he thinks seven days is a better compromise.
"You've heard some good arguments," McGhehy said. "Why four days and five days without looking at calendar systems is still not going to fix the problem and not the average weekends. In several years, I've kept track of the responses that I've gotten to the city. And first of all, there's no overwhelming desire to do this. In the responses I've done, it's pretty evenly split. And seven days, as I've heard today, and as I've been saying this since this was brought up, and the seven days has been compromised for those who were targeted at doing for ten days, and those who want to have more than four. I'm still at seven."
Councilman Brian Mischnick said he is also at seven days.
"I understand where people are coming from," Mischnick said.
Mayor Dafney, Councilwoman Bentley, and Councilman Jones voted yes on the third reading of this fireworks ordinance. Councilman McGhehy and Mischnick voted no.
You can listen to the Oct. 4 Alliance City Council meeting by clicking HERE.