The Lansdale Borough Public Safety Committee addressed growing concerns about firework usage during their work session on Wednesday night, outlining a two-pronged response consisting of increased police enforcement and an incoming amendment to the current municipal-level fireworks ordinance.
At issue is Pennsylvania House Bill 542 of 2017, which took effect on Oct. 30, 2017, amending the state’s Tax Reform Code of 1971. Inserted into the tax bill, however, was Act 43 of 2017, which amended the state’s 78-year-old regulation of fireworks, including the creation of “consumer” and “display” categories of fireworks.
“What they have done is they have bifurcated fireworks into consumer fireworks and what they call display fireworks,” said Lansdale Borough Police Chief Michael Trail, who added that there is a chart that uses size, amounts of gun powder and other characteristics to differentiate between the two categories. “There’s a lot of regulation in respect to display fireworks.”
The regulation of consumer-grade fireworks is less decisive, and has lead to increasing complaints both in online groups, such as the Citizens for the Revitalization of Lansdale, and to borough police alike. Since May 14, police have received 169 noise complaints, with more than half of them being related to fireworks.
“We found that 90 of those were firework-related calls, in which officers responded and investigated,” said Trail, adding that those 90 incidents resulted in five adult arrests and eight warnings.
Trail implores the public to continue being active in reporting the incidents, either publicly via 9-1-1 or by sending emails, anonymous tips, etc. He said he understands the department won’t be able to resolve each incident—they have responded to 400 non-traffic events in the last week, ranging from a stabbing to noise complaints—but that should not deter the reporting of incidents from borough residents.
“We want your help. It’s a partnership,” said Trail. “One of the things that is extremely important is that we have to have a victim.” Otherwise, Trail says, police are limited in their response.
A New Ordinance in the Works
The current borough ordinance covering fireworks was enacted in 2016, one year prior to the state’s legalization of consumer-grade fireworks via Act 43 of 2017. Now, the public safety committee is working to amend the ordinance—possibly as early as the next committee meeting—in an effort to restrict the use of the consumer category of fireworks.
“We realize we have an issue, and we’re working to resolve that,” said Tom Work, chairman of the public safety committee. “The purpose of updating the ordinance is to give it more teeth, relative to the state law that is in place, specifically so we can add time, place and manner restrictions to [consumer grade] fireworks.”
Trail added that the committee was reviewing similar ordinances from neighboring and regional municipalities, such as Falls Township, who adjusted their definition of “occupied structure” to no longer require an occupant to physically be present within the structure. The committee plans to continue researching other ordinances, cherry-picking amendments until they’ve crafted a new ordinance to cover the borough.
The next meeting of the Lansdale Borough Public Safety Committee will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 3, at 7 p.m. at borough hall.
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