SEQUIM — A newly adopted ordinance will allow the city to ban the use of fireworks during very dry periods beginning in August 2016.
All City Council members present — Laura Dubois was absent — voted to adopt the new ordinance Monday.
The ordinance becomes effective one year after passage, which means such a ban could not be issued during the 2016 Fourth of July holiday.
Such bans, however, will be available every year thereafter while the ordinance is in place and can be enacted during periods of very high or extreme fire danger, as determined by the city fire marshal or city manager.
A decision by Sequim to implement such a ban is expected to be based on city consultation with representatives of Clallam County Fire District No. 3 and the Clallam County fire marshal.
The Port Angeles City Council in March also approved a ban on personal fireworks within city limits. That ordinance takes effect beginning in April 2016.
Port Townsend banned consumer fireworks in 2003.
Clallam and Jefferson County commissioners and fire marshals also have been working to find a way to allow a ban of fireworks in unincorporated areas under emergency conditions, but any such measure couldn’t legally go into effect until 2017 at the earliest.
Only at certain times
The Sequim ordinance “does not ban fireworks period,” Craig Ritchie, interim city manager, said during the meeting.
“It bans them in times where it is pretty dangerous to use them,” he said.
“Sometimes it can be so hot in Sequim in summer and in the rest of the county, [and] it is really dangerous to use almost any fireworks — not just the kind that shoot up into the air but the kinds that catch grass on fire.”
Fire danger
Fire danger is high this summer.
The U.S. Drought Monitor on June 23 said conditions on the Olympic Peninsula had worsened from moderate drought to severe drought.
The snowpack in the Olympic Mountains is at zero.
A combination of sparse rainfall in May and June and higher-than-normal temperatures triggered burn bans across the region, including in Clallam County.
But the burn ban, which prohibits outdoor burning including recreational fires, did not forbid the use of fireworks during Fourth of July weekend, and Sequim did not have an ordinance in place to prevent the use of fireworks.
Despite the absence of a ban, the city did issue a public education bulletin regarding fireworks danger.
“This season, we certainly gave information to everyone . . . that it was high fire danger and [to] have a garden hose ready even if you are not using fireworks,” Ritchie said.
The potential for catastrophic fire being sparked by errant fireworks led the City Council to consider how to prevent such instances should they arrive in the future.
Ann Hall, city building official and fire marshal, said during the meeting she would have “absolutely” felt more comfortable enacting a ban last month had the ordinance adopted Monday already been in effect.
Other action
In other business, the council approved midyear budget amendments authorizing unforeseen expenditures for 2015. This raised the 2015 expense budget by $2,015,550 to $39,929,255.
The City Council also adopted an ordinance to maintain current transportation and parks impact fees while the Public Works Department conducts a study of the proper amount of impact fees to be collected.
When that study is completed within the next few months, the fees may be amended, said David Garlington, city engineer.
The council also adopted a resolution amending the speed limit on East Brownfield Road from 30 to 35 mph after a speed study was performed on the road between South Sequim Avenue and Simdars Road.
The study showed the speed that 85 percent of vehicles drive at or under to be at about 42 mph.
After reviewing the data, the Public Works Department recommended the speed limit be raised.
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
