For the first time in perhaps a century, Iolans can shoot off fireworks in city limits legally for Independence Day.
City Council members voted 4-3 Monday in favor of allowing the sale and shooting of fireworks, capping a months-long debate on ending the city’s ban.
Fireworks will be allowed from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. June 29-July 3, and until midnight on July 4, according to the city’s amended fireworks ordinance.
There are still limitations. Some fireworks, such as Roman candles and sky rockets or mortar shells, will remain off limits. Vendors will be allowed only along U.S. 54 or State Street in Iola, and users will be banned from shooting fireworks from streets and alleys or other public places such as parks or school grounds.
Both the shooting and sale of fireworks would be allowed on July 5, put in place in case of rain on Independence Day.
Before the vote, council members Donald Becker and Joel Wicoff both spoke in opposition to the new ordinance, both saying constituents who spoke with them were opposed to letting off fireworks in the city. They were joined by Jim Kilby in opposing the new rules.
Still, the vote carried 4-3, with Kendall Callahan, Beverly Franklin, Ken Rowe and Scott Stewart in favor. Councilman Steve French was absent.
COUNCILMEN also approved an ordinance that institutes the city’s newly developed purchasing policy.
The ordinance helps conform city policies into Iola’s municipal code, City Administrator Carl Slaugh said.
“It makes it a more formal document,” Slaugh said.
The ordinance was passed over the objections of Becker and Wicoff, both of whom asked the council for additional time to look over the purchasing policy.
Callahan, however, noted the policy already had been approved, and that Monday’s vote was only for the ordinance.
Wicoff said the policy was flawed, warning that if the city showed an unwillingness to alter it, the cost of some goods could skyrocket.
“Realistically, it’s good for us to have a document to rely on,” Wicoff said. “However … if we’re insistent on issues our vendors don’t want to deal with, we’re going to double our costs. We’ve gotta be careful with that. Our council has to be reasonable. The other thing we have to do is deal with internal costs, which usually is in the form of time. If our employees are frusted because they’ve got to deal with paper supplies across town that they have to spend half the day trying to get, they’re going to get frustrated, and they’re not gonna do their job well. The council needs to think about these issues versus just a document we borrowed from a town in Missouri. We need to be be considerate of some of these efficiencies that are going to come back and bite us if we’re not careful.”
“It really wasn’t a document borrowed from a town in Missouri,” Rowe responded. “We looked at many different purchasing policies. It was arrived from four of us council people meeting over a two-month period. We’ve spent a lot of time doing this.”
