Whenever I go to a Gilroy City Council meeting about an issue, I
skim the entire agenda to see what else might be in the works.
Heck, sometimes if I am merely passing by of a Monday evening, I
stop in to read the agenda.
Whenever I go to a Gilroy City Council meeting about an issue, I skim the entire agenda to see what else might be in the works. Heck, sometimes if I am merely passing by of a Monday evening, I stop in to read the agenda. It’s fun; city councilmen get curious (or nervous) and wander over to say hello and ask what item I am there for.
Thus, last March 15, I attended a City Council meeting on a separate issue. I skimmed the agenda. And when I saw “Item VIII. E. Fireworks Mitigation Strategy,” I filled out a yellow speaker card immediately, without waiting to find out what the proposed strategy was, because if a citizen wants to speak to an issue on the agenda, he has to get the card in early, and if the proposed strategy was to ban fireworks, I wanted to speak.
I love sparklers and fountains and all the so-called “safe-and-sane” fireworks. I have loved them since I was a small child, writing my name in the air with a sparkler on warm Fourth of July nights. And I love Gilroy in part because we still allow legal fireworks.
Every Independence Day, after we eat our barbecue and read aloud the Declaration of Independence, our family and guests gather up blankets and walk over to the high school to watch the aerial display.
Walking back afterwards is an eight-block party, because every family along our route is setting off fireworks. The air is thick with gunpowder, noise, and excitement. Once home, we get a bucket of water, a hose, matches, and our fireworks, and watch our kids and our kid-guests set them off. It is just as much fun as holding my own sparkler 40 years ago: maybe more.
Fireworks and Independence Day seem inextricably linked to me. Freedom – exercised within the bounds of law. Freedom – exercised responsibly. I will be very upset if our city government decides we are too irresponsible to use fireworks on Independence Day.
Growing up, my cousin Charlie bought his illegal M-80s and cherry bombs in Chinatown. Once he took me to a creek near his house, lit an M-80, and dropped it off the bridge. BLAM!!! The explosion lit up the whole creekbed: like a camera flash, like lightning.
We never incurred any injuries or fires with Charlie’s illegals, but I burnt off my bangs, pitted my glasses, and burned my hand trying to ignite a dud “safe-and-sane” with a sparkler. “Safe-and-sane” is no proof against stupidity.
So at the City Council meeting in March, I was apprehensive that Council might be contemplating a ban. They had reason: the previous July Fourth, Gilroy had two fires: the one caused by illegal fireworks occasioned $300,000 worth of damage; the other, caused by careless use of legal fireworks, resulted in $125,000 worth of damage.
City Clerk Rhonda Pellin and Councilman Bob Dillon were both kind enough to give me copies of the mitigation strategy. I read it while I was waiting for my turn to speak. It is really very sensible. The city plans to staff additional police and fire, and to charge a 7.3 percent surcharge on sales of legal fireworks to pay for said staffing.
Friends, Gilroyans, citizens: Please, let us work together to keep legal fireworks legal in Gilroy.
