ORONO, Maine — Three residents are leading an effort to have voters decide whether a recent Town Council decision to ban the use and sale of fireworks should be upheld.
Daniel LaPointe, George Bagley and Paul Melanson sent out 250 petitions Monday in an effort to gather 785 signatures that would allow voters to decide at the ballot boxes whether Orono should prohibit fireworks, Bagley said.
On Dec. 12, the council passed an amendment under the label “Fire Prevention and Protection,” which states, “No person shall use, sell, possess with intent to sell or offer for sale consumer fireworks … within the boundaries of the Town of Orono, including the University of Maine.”
That does not apply to people issued a fireworks display permit by the town or state.
The ordinance establishes fines ranging between $50 and $200, with penalties increasing to between $100 and $400 for repeat offenses. The fine for selling or possessing with intent to sell fireworks is at least $200, or $500 for repeat offenses.
It gives the town authority to seize consumer fireworks that it determines will be used or are intended for sale.
The next day, LaPointe, Bangley and Melanson began gathering signatures. As of Friday, they had collected a little more than 150 of the 785 required to force a vote on the ordinance, LaPointe said.
LaPointe, Bagley and Melanson call the ordinance an unnecessary restriction and argue the town should have been content with following the state law that legalized fireworks in Maine.
“We feel that they silenced our Fourth of Julys and our New Year’s events and those things that mean a lot to us as Americans,” LaPointe said. “We really want to open up the ballot box for people to make their own decision.”
Bagley said two people will be out and about in Orono on Tuesday gathering signatures while petitions are distributed to homes in town.
He asked that anyone who signs the petition make sure they return it to the town office. The deadline for returning petitions is Jan. 3, 2012, but Bagley asked that people drop them off as soon as possible or by Friday at the latest because of the coming New Year’s holiday.
Council Chairman Geoffrey Gordon said the council passed the ordinance with the intent of “extending the status quo.”
He said the council worried about fire safety issues associated with the use of fireworks in “a densely packed neighborhood.”
The council considered allowing fireworks in some open areas, such as rural fields, but drafting an ordinance that allowed fireworks in some spots in town and not others would prove too complex and involved.
“In the time that we have available to us, it was impossible to craft an ordinance that would do justice to both sides of the issue,” Gordon said.
Instead, the council decided to draft an ordinance that would keep the rules the same as they were before Maine eliminated its fireworks ban.
Gordon said he was fine with the petition effort to give voters a chance to accept or overturn the council’s decision.
“That’s the way the system’s supposed to to work,” he said.
But he said he didn’t see much opposition to the ordinance at multiple public hearings the town has held over the issue in the past few months.
it should be the law of the state…afraid all your college kids are going to lighting up the campus..here come the do gooders….go back to washington dc
Whata bunch of old fahts!
lol Orono is such a nanny town. It’s ok i will just spend my money is some other maine town. It’s not like they have enough officers to catch everyone with a few fire crackers.
Im just glad I can shoot some tracers this 4th and nobody will be the wiser.
Most college towns tend to have this type attitude. Witness The People’s Republic of Cambridge, Ma. “The gov’t knows better than we do” Harvard type thinking.
We can’t all be protected from everything. What if I step on the top step of that stepladder? Woops! Sue! The warning label fell off!
Or the family that got sick when they put dish soap on their fish because the label said ‘now with lemon’?
Stupid is stupid (Darwinism). I just don’t want to hear any stories about a toddler getting hurt by an errantly tossed cracker, or worse.
They should make a bill banning ladders from having top steps… I wouldn’t put it past them.
I love Maine… However, more and more poeple seem to be pushing this great state into a over stuffed, over pretected, nanny state. I have lived in many states where fireworks are legal, yet they havent all burned to the ground yet. Waht are you afraid of, nayway, morons usually find a way to start fires whther its with cigarettes or using a lighter to light a fart on fire. GROW UP and stop treating EVERYONE like children. I loved being able to layback on our family land back in New York when our family would have a huge family get together and light some real fireworks for 4th of July. Now we sit on our porch and watch the pitiful display put on by our town.
I know this is off topic but what you just typed made me think of gay marriage. It is legal in a lot of other countries and yet they get by just fine. The gays have not over thrown anyone and just live their life’s like the rest of us.
Amusing how fireworks and gays can go hand in hand.
So something gets legalized which could possibly result in a small boost to the maine economy, and of course all the sheep that know nothing about it have decided to get it banned.
How long before someone opens up a fireworks factory and it takes off because of the superior quality work mainers put into everything. Fireworks could be the next big industry in this state. It could create jobs. But this can never be a possibility if we continue to let scared idiots ban everything.
They’d like our guns banned too but unfortunately they are protected.
I’m very liberal, but I can tell you that when some 15 year old chucklehead is lighting off fireworks at 9:30 some Sunday evening, I want to be able to call the cops and have him put to bed for the night. The towns that don’t ban these things now will be lining up to do so in about 2 weeks.
not true check with other states its no big deal!
There can still be restrictions on use, but ultimately the decision should go to the local residents.
I agree if towns want to ban it the residents should have to vote on it. Letting a few city councilors or selectmen decide because they know what is best is arrogant. The majority of the states that have fireworks made legal have had very few people being injured.
This is about the towns/cities fearing the people can put on better fireworks displays than those expensive municpal fireworks shows that are paid for by the taxpayers. We can create new businesses with jobs, new revenue & tax revenue for struggling cities and towns selling these fireworks. People should have the right to celebrate on the 4th of July, Labor Day, Christmas, and New Years the way they want.
”Mah you pesky kids” as you shake your cane in disgust. But seriously do you realize how much fireworks cost, no 15 year old kid is going to be able to afford more than 45 seconds worth of noise and the decibel level for most small fireworks is no greater than a car backfiring or a dumpster lid slamming. Hardly enough to disturb your episode of the price is right.
I can tell you are thinking of giant 40 to 50 thousand dollar firework shows when we say fireworks the same way you liberals think of tony montanas m16 mounted grenade launcher when someone says they own a gun.
So what time do usually get up on Sunday morning ?
We need to know when to schedule the demonstration of why firecrackers are a useless waste, in front of your house.
One little one each minute and half for four hours is cheap enough.
Think that would get you shaking your cane, too, McScrooge ?
With the amount of alcohol I typically consume on saturday night I don’t think I’ll even care. Of course the family range is on my property so I might not hear the firecrackers over the sound of 5.56.
Should it be legal operate explosives while under the influence of
alcohol ?
No absolutely not, who is?
Does your propaganda depend on people thinking the premise; “of course, drunks will not play with fireworks” is valid ?
Ah I see youre point, we better ban cars, guns, powertools and karaoke machines too. The drunks might use those too
it is just because of liberal hatred for jobs, Mr lepage and a vibrant economy and we all know it.
How many good jobs ?
…. extra work for doctors treating the uninsured who buy fireworks with their food stamps
doesn’t count. Timmy.
Glad you see how the system works. 1 job is one we do not pay for with taxes.
So relative to the system of how your lying corporate propaganda works:
how many good jobs will selling works create… at what cost ?
IT is the question.
Can’t your hateful bull flaps hold up if people question your “authority” and apply your own lies to your world, too ?
Just answer the question asked; ” how many good jobs will selling fire works create… at what cost”, or embrace your role as a corporate propagandist selling a system of lies.
Have a nice day .
Trying to guess how many jobs anything will create is impossible. Again any will be far more than the progresssive agenda from maines past.Iwill gaurantee one thing it will create a lot more jobs than the ultimate lie (green jobs).You talk about cost after the fact how about 150 or more million for one company to filter money back to the DNC. Then the tax payers are on the hook for 13,000 per employee for retraining.And you complain about corporate propoganda.The dems and their pet Occupy should open their eyes and look just where the money is going.Obamas reelection and distributed through the DNC. The progressives have made anyone that makes a profit evil.So maybe under the scrutiny of progressives the fireworks sales just might be what they need .Stop sales and jobs from it and you have no profit.Also i am sure most of these progressives and Occupy really believethat an entry level job is beneath them.That is exactly what is wrong with the progresssives the do not want to work for anything handouts are expected.
Um, there’s nothing preventing a fireworks factory from being built in Maine…
Didn’t say there was, my comment was a theoretical scenario. Quite possible though.
”
and of course all the sheep that know nothing about it have decided to get it banned.”
So the Maine State Fire Marshal, Bangor Fire Chief, Orono, Augusta and Portland Fire Chiefs as well as numerous other Fire Chiefs throughout the State of Maine are sheep? Of course you would know more then they would when it comes to fire and life safety.
All those people are nothing more than highly paid city officials who do not represent rural maine, we do not need to become a state that is run by its urban areas. Other states that have this are not having any trouble with fireworks. Lets take portland for example, The portland police chief would probably want all guns banned in maine too, but he would not be siding with the majority. the same can be said about fireworks. Or maybe portland fire cheif is scared they will crash their yacht again responding to a firecracker call.
They are Liberals who feel they know what is best for folks. So just because Liberals in Portland run the city into the ground we should take their lead. This is the same city that bans chain businesses, bans Hooter’s from trying to open up in the downtown, has folks running topless in major traffic areas, canceled New Years celebration a few years ago and was heavily criticized. They call the Christmas Tree a Holiday Tree and got criticism. No offense but living in the 2nd District , I don’t want to follow their failed lead. We can do things on our own we don’t need the Libs controlling us. Most of us have used fireworks for many years if not decades and will continue to use them legal or not.
liberal policys are why we are in this mess.
They are all RINO’s or worse, NOW
… so now, they are wrong, no matter what they say, forever after.It is the logical result of the conservative’s illogical “no compromise” policy.
time for bangor to do it too !
They have been setting fire works of in China for years do you hear about any cities or towns burning down ??
Chinese New Year Fireworks Disaster Burns Mandarin Oriental … www.businessweek.com/…/chinese_new_year_fireworks_disaster_bu…10 Feb 2009 – As always, the Chinese New Year in Beijing was celebrated with a near constant two-week-plus-long barrage of fireworks. …
Enschede fireworks disaster – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enschede_fireworks_disasterSE Fireworks was a major importer of fireworks from China and supplier to pop concerts and major festive events in the Netherlands. Prior to the disaster it had a …9 dead in China fireworks accident www.asiaone.com/News/Latest…/A1Story20101218-253492.html18 Dec 2010 –
BEIJING – NINE people were killed and nine others injured when a truck loaded with fireworks material hit an electricity pole and blew up in …
None of these links work
Oh well, damned internet… but does that change the point re: “They have been setting fire works of in China for years do you hear about any cities or towns burning down ?? “, any ?
So, how many good jobs, at what cost will the sales of fire create ?
There is best LePage has got. lol
Funny reading all these comments from those that are “pro” fireworks. I grew up here in the state of Maine, have lived elsewhere where they were legal, and have experienced the noise and attention that they generate. Sorry to all of you, but when I am sitting by the fire, on the edge of the lake watching and listening to the loons, I do not need fireworks going off to create additional “ambiance. I don’t really care what they do in other states, I live here and enjoy it for what it is. By the way, fireworks is not the answer to the slow economy we are experiencing, only about one percent or less would think allowing fireworks in the state is a move in the right direction for residents of the state of Maine.
Liberals want old trees and new entitlements. Do not bring in any jobs it will ruin our nanny state.
Please explain your comment
Amen.
But who says that you are the king of the earth and have more entitlement to do as you please than everyone else?
I’ve had my say and don’t wish to engage in any online arguements with you. You have a good day…
isn’t liberalism grand.If Mr Baldacci would have proposed this. This would be the fix for the Maine economy.Just waiting for the leftys to start their lawyers after this issue.Lawyers and judges are how liberals govern.