March 29, 2024

Council at impasse over fireworks permit proposal

Questions of concern over permit, but old ordinance restricts conversation

Even though the window for shooting fireworks has come and gone, Creston City Council still spent most of Tuesday’s meeting discussing the highly debated topic.

This discussion initiated around a proposal of a permit application for firework shows inside the city limits of Creston outside of July 4 and Christmas.

The debate about the application started around insurance coverage, but legality quickly shifted the conversation into old discussions over the current ordinance the city has discussed changing since fireworks became legal in Iowa earlier this year.

The proposed permit requires a $1 million total exposure insurance policy for anyone wishing to shoot off fireworks within the city limits.

Brandon Vonk, vice president of the Creston Shooters, requested to host a shoot for a family friend, igniting the discussion.

“The whole thing was, Brandon had requested to have a shoot. What do we need to do to get it done? That is what really generated this,” said City Administrator Mike Taylor.

Insurance policies with the proposed permit caused concern on Vonk’s part, especially regarding smaller shoots.

“I’m not against saying that we need the insurance, but it’s the amount,” said Vonk.

“Well now that we are after the legal shoot days I need a million dollars in insurance? When I could have shot that stuff legal 10 days ago and not had to have a million-dollar policy,” said Vonk.

Creston Fire Chief Todd Jackson said Vonk asked for a permit to do a show in a residential area.

“The city of Creston does not allow fireworks in the city of Creston. So we have to go off the city ordinance of Creston,” said Jackson. “The ordinance is these numbers, you can’t change those numbers and go by the ordinance.

“We haven’t even addressed what our fireworks (ordinance) are going to be in the future.”

Insurance for the proposed permit can’t be changed under current Creston ordinance because it is illegal to shoot fireworks inside the city limits of Creston.

According to the current ordinance one must apply and be approved for a permit to shoot off fireworks inside the city limits. The ordinance does not specify what class the fireworks fall under, simply that one must obtain a permit.

These discussions tabled off as speculation over rumored changes in the state law put the council at an impasse.

For the discussion to truly continue, the council and the city of Creston will need to decide on its own laws to conduct any changes to the permit and insurance policy.

Road improvement projects

Garden and Associates have begun conceptual discussion on how it plans on doing the street reconstruction projects in 2018.

Austin Smith, engineer with Garden and Associates, updated the council on that discourse.

Smith voiced multiple times for any member of the public who might have an issue with road closings for repair to bring that issue up sooner rather than later.

“Montgomery Street is getting overlayed so we might have some issues with parade routes,” said Smith.

A few houses on West Howard Street may get blocked in by the construction.

“Just try to get it out there early before April or May next year and people voice their concerns at that point,” said Smith. “We’d like to hear them before that.”

Asphalt prices are another topic of discussion with the firm.

“We recommend bundling in all the asphalt street projects into one. More asphalt, cheaper price. It’s a specialty item down around southwest Iowa there is not a lot of options for asphalt like there are for concrete. So, we will more than likely bundle the asphalt projects together.”

However, that recommendation depends on price. Contracts could be divied up if it is too expensive to buy all the asphalt from one contractor.

“That way we have an option to go with one contractor. If they have a good price on every project all together, or we can bid the project separately, so you might have three or four or five different contracts with different contractors,” said Smith regarding potential cost of asphalt.

“We’re looking January, February for every project out there,” said Smith regarding potential start dates.

As of now, plans are to complete all of the road repair projects before the end of 2018. However, issues such as sewage pipe repairs or streets needing to be left open have the potential to slow the project.