Legislators: Fireworks law ‘makes liars out of all of us’

By David Skolnick

Few arrests for use of illegal fireworks were made over the holiday weekend.

YOUNGSTOWN — The fireworks displays in some neighborhoods over the Fourth of July weekend were as spectacular as ones put on by the professionals.

The rockets had red glare. The bombs burst in the air. They caused your neighbors to go “ooh” and “ahh” with each multicolored explosion.

And unless the display featured only sparklers, snaps, smoke bombs and glow snakes, they were illegal.

Here’s another Fourth of July tradition: Though the use of other fireworks is illegal, police made only a few arrests this past weekend.

Ohio’s fireworks law is “utterly ridiculous” and “makes liars out of all of us,” said state Rep. Robert F. Hagan of Youngstown, D-60th.

It’s legal in Ohio to purchase consumer fireworks such as firecrackers, bottle rockets, Roman candles and spraying fountains. But it’s against the law to discharge them in Ohio.

When purchasing fireworks, a person must sign a form that lists what state the fireworks will be transported to and requires Ohioans to get them out of the state within 48 hours.

“It’s a wink-and-a-nod law,” Hagan said. “It makes liars out of everyone who signs” the form.

Hagan and three other state legislators from the Mahoning Valley — state Reps. Ronald V. Gerberry of Austintown, D-59th; Thomas Letson of Warren, D-64th; and state Sen. John Boccieri of New Middletown, D-33rd — say the General Assembly needs to consider legalizing consumer fireworks next year.

“I object to making our citizens liars,” Letson said of falsely signing a form to have the fireworks out of the state within 48 hours of purchasing them.

A person convicted of a falsification charge could receive up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Letson said he’s discussed changing the law with other legislators and is hopeful it can be seriously considered next year.

“We should revisit this law,” Boccieri added. “As long as [the fireworks are] safe, it should be legalized.”

Warren officials publicly declared the city a zero-tolerance area for illegal fireworks displays before the Fourth of July.

The city’s police department received 108 calls related to the illegal use of fireworks between Wednesday and Tuesday. The department arrested three on the first-degree misdemeanor charge.

“There’s a lot of discretion with the officers” as to making arrests, said police Capt. Tim Bowers. “When you see the cops coming, you stop blowing stuff up.”

Though less than 3 percent of the calls resulted in charges, Bowers said the zero-tolerance declaration helped reduce the amount of illegal fireworks in the city.

Boardman police didn’t charge anyone with illegally using fireworks, said Chief Patrick J. Berarducci.

Officers have to see someone breaking the law to make an arrest, he said.

The illegal use of fireworks isn’t “high priority” for the department, Berarducci said.

“It’s not something we have the time to investigate,” he said. “It’s not been a problem.”

There were no arrests in Youngstown on Independence Day even though there were plenty of fireworks set off in the city.

In Youngstown, a woman in the 100 block of West Chalmers Avenue on the South Side called police to report a rocket-type firework stuck in her aluminum siding. The woman said a bunch of kids had been shooting off fireworks at her house Friday and she found one in her siding on Saturday.

She called police on Sunday after standing by her window and overhearing one of the same boys walking by say to his companions: “Look, the firework is still in her house where I shot it.”

The 15-year-old South Side boy was located by police and told to stay away from the woman and her house.

The police charged a 29-year-old Loveland Avenue man on June 25.

Police reports show that when Jamar A. Howell was asked “nicely” by a police officer to stop lighting the illegal fireworks, he just laughed. Howell then began to light another pack as the officer drove off, which caused the officer to return, write the citation and seize the fireworks.

The state doesn’t keep records of how many of its residents violate the illegal-fireworks law because most of the charges are at the local level, said Shane Cartmill, spokesman for the Division of State Marshal.

“I don’t think it’s common,” he said of arresting those who violate the law. “A lot of time when police find someone shooting fireworks, they say to stop it please. It’s very difficult to enforce. By the time they get there, the fireworks stop.”

The state Legislature tried in the early 1990s to change the law to legally allow Ohioans to discharge consumer fireworks, but it stalled and then died, said Harry Meshel, the Senate minority leader at the time, and Gerberry, who was a House member then.

“We’ve been fooling around with this for years,” Meshel said. “Who ... doesn’t like fireworks? Fireworks, hot dogs and the flag. What’s more American than that?”

Hagan and other local legislators, who are all Democrats, say they expect to move on this if their party takes control of the Ohio House after the November election.

A fireworks law should make it legal to discharge them for a certain time before and after July 4 as well as the holiday, Gerberry said.

“Let’s not have a law that’s a farce,” he said. “They’re not being taken out of state.”

The use of all or certain consumer fireworks are legal in 39 states, said William Weimer, vice president and general counsel of B.J. Alan Co., a subsidiary of Phantom Fireworks, in Youngstown.

The company has lobbied the state Legislature for years to legalize the use of consumer fireworks in Ohio without success, he said.

Weimer said he’s encouraged that local legislators are interested in revisiting the issue.

One problem with the discharging of fireworks being illegal is it discourages law enforcement agencies in the state from educating people about the proper use of fireworks, he said. B.J. Alan includes safety information with every purchase, but more could be done, he said.

“If a good number of our customers are in Ohio and the injuries are as few as they are, imagine how less it would be” if discharging fireworks were legal, Weimer said.

skolnick@vindy.com

XContributor: Crime reporter Patricia Meade