{"id":2374,"date":"2015-12-16T15:10:37","date_gmt":"2015-12-16T23:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spiken.wpengine.com\/news\/a-closer-look-at-the-fireworks-ban\/"},"modified":"2016-10-22T08:45:30","modified_gmt":"2016-10-22T15:45:30","slug":"a-closer-look-at-the-fireworks-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/letters\/a-closer-look-at-the-fireworks-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"A closer look at the fireworks ban"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><p>In reviewing what I learned by attending City Council and Public Safety Committee meetings, this issue isn\u2019t complicated enough to require more discussion.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">Kent currently allows personal fireworks to be fired off only during the 14 hours between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m. on July 4. A ban currently exists for the other 364 days plus 10 hours. The proposed ban would merely add the 14 hours between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m. on July 4. Professional displays could continue, if approved, as allowed by the current ordinance.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">The current ordinance has a $250 fine for personal fireworks fired off outside of the allocated 14 hours. The proposed ban includes the current fine. The proposed ban adds an additional penalty: a person possessing 20 pounds or more of fireworks will be charged with a misdemeanor because it shows serious intent. The existing ordinance already prohibits illegal fireworks during anytime of the year.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">As for allowing time for public comment, you had that in the election when 63 percent of the votes indicated a fireworks ban was desired. Quit dragging your heels and get on with it.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p class=\"p3\"><strong><em>\u2013 Rich Brandau<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>\u00a0<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In reviewing what I learned by attending City Council and Public Safety Committee meetings, this issue isn\u2019t complicated enough to require more discussion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-2374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2374"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}