City on right track with fireworks
With six weeks before the Fourth of July weekend, city officials
appear ready to allow the sale of safe and sane fireworks in
Hollister again. That is great news for a dozen local nonprofit
organizations that sell the legal fireworks, which usually are not
the problem.
City on right track with fireworks
With six weeks before the Fourth of July weekend, city officials appear ready to allow the sale of safe and sane fireworks in Hollister again. That is great news for a dozen local nonprofit organizations that sell the legal fireworks, which usually are not the problem.
It is the right decision because the legal fireworks pose little risk and historically have not been the cause of damage in Hollister, as Councilman Doug Emerson noted in last week’s Pinnacle story on the subject. Reporter Adam Breen questioned city officials on the topic in light of raging wildfires in 2008 and talk last year of banning their sale.
Allowing the fundraisers also means those nonprofits – which include such organizations as Community Pantry and San Benito High boosters – can count on the tremendous impact those fundraisers have on the groups’ financing and, in the end, the community as a whole.
Citizens, meanwhile, get to enjoy not only helping their favorite nonprofit organizations, but they also have access to the much less dangerous variety of fireworks.
Allowing the fundraisers to go on actually could decrease the likelihood for a major disaster. Illegal rockets cause the vast majority of blazes started by fireworks in California and San Benito County. If locals have easy access to the safe and sane fireworks, it might just deter them from buying the bad stuff.
Those illegal fireworks have become increasingly common in Hollister as they light up the sky for hours each July 4 and, to a lesser extent, on New Year’s Eve. The people who shoot them off lack common sense and a sense of compassion for their neighbors who share the risk without choice. It is simply a foolish act and a bad example to set for kids.
The safe and sane variety, however, offers a fun alternative for local families. Most important, they are safe for those involved and other citizens around them. Fire Chief Fred Cheshire even noted how Hollister officials each year take the designated list of safe and sane fireworks and they pare it down by taking out those with which they are less comfortable.
And the residual impacts continue on throughout the year. Community groups raise the needed money, while a portion of those proceeds also go directly to the City of Hollister’s July 4 fireworks show that thousands get to enjoy.
