Fireworks bring revenue, debate to Mount Pleasant
A collection of white tents housing small armories of sparklers, 500-gram cakes and mortars have popped up all over Mount Pleasant.
They are here because Michigan has removed its ban on consumer-grade fireworks.
The bill, known as the Michigan Fireworks Safety Act and signed by Gov. Rick Snyder, took effect Jan. 1. It allows for the sale and use of all class C consumer-grade fireworks throughout the state.
Shari Hall of Newaygo is running the Jake’s Fireworks tent on Mission Street.
“I’m just glad they opened it here,” Hall said. “Everyone was just going out of state to buy them anyways.”
Jonah Ratu of Mount Pleasant, a junior at Mid-Michigan Community College, was the first customer to Hall’s stand this season.
Ratu said he likes to set fireworks off around the Fourth of July with his friends at their bonfires. He said he always traveled to Indiana to get his fireworks before, but now he’s happy to buy them in Michigan.
“I’m just glad it’s legal now,” Ratu said. “I don’t think it’s dangerous, if you’re responsible enough to handle fireworks and you know what you’re doing.”
Debate has begun over whether the act, which contains a clause barring local governments from relegating fireworks on or 24 hours prior to and after a national holiday, supersedes local noise ordinances.
The Macomb Daily of Mount Clemens reports Warren City Council intends to vote Tuesday to place restrictions on when and where fireworks may be used.
Warren City Mayor James Fouts told The Macomb Daily, “We’re, in effect, challenging the state law.”
Although Mount Pleasant’s noise ordinance policy does not specifically mention fireworks, it reads as such: “It shall be unlawful for any person to make, continue, or cause to be made or continued any excessive, unnecessary or unusually loud noise or any noise which annoys, disturbs, injures or endangers the comfort, repose, health, peace or safety of others, within the limits of the city.”
Leo Mioduszewski, sheriff of Isabella County, confirmed that the Isabella County Sheriff's department has not yet received any noise complaints due to fireworks since the law was signed in January.
Dennis Kreiner of Alma runs a fireworks tent on corner of Mission and High Streets. He said people should be respectful of their neighbors when it comes to fireworks.
“People lighting things off too late at night, bothering other people . . . It’s the same thing as honking your horn too late; it’s rude,” he said. “People need to be more aware of where they are.”
