I don’t know whether it was common sense, public pressure or a guy blowing off a testicle that convinced the Howell City Council on a vote of 6 to 1 to adopt an ordinance restricting the use of fireworks, but dogs (and people like me) give thanks — many, many thanks.
The Livingston Post was the first to report on the vote via Facebook last night.
With so many reasons to adopt the ban, the only thing I am scratching my head over at this moment is why Howell Mayor Phillip Campbell was the lone vote against it.
I wasn’t able to be at this council meeting, but at the one on June 25, the mayor told a story of young kids in his neighborhood blowing off fireworks without any adult supervision. He also issued a wag of the finger in his July 1 blog post. In anticipation of the Fourth of July, the mayor told fireworks enthusiasts to blow up as much stuff as they liked during the federally protected times of July 3-5, (“Go nuts,” is what the mayor wrote in his blog), and then knock it off. If they didn’t, he warned that the council may adopt the ordinance (which it ultimately did).
As you might have guessed, the chuckleheads continued to disturb our peace by blowing up loud stuff at various and often-weird times of the day and night. Perhaps in anticipation of Monday’s vote banning fireworks, somebody was shooting stuff off at 8:30 a.m. that same day.
Campbell promised in a Facebook post Monday night that he would post his reasons for voting against the ban. “I’ll post something on this thread tomorrow with the details, and the reasons why I voted against it,” he wrote.
If you want to take a look at the ordinance, click here.
I’d like to thank all the people who filed comments and signed the online petition of The Livingston Post. Even though I couldn’t be at the meeting, I got your feedback to the council prior to the meeting.
After cranking about the fireworks for weeks now (you can read all my rants here, here and here), I am thrilled that the council did everything it could to restore peace and quiet to life in our town. We must still depend on the courtesy of our fireworks-loving neighbors to abide by the law, but the cautionary tale of the dude who blew off an important of his dudeness could be just the carrot we need.
