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Tuesday, February 9, 2010 |
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Perry backs county's fireworks ban
Published December 21, 2008
SEGUIN — There will be no fireworks this holiday season in Guadalupe County — at least not outside of a courtroom.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Friday agreed with County Judge Mike Wiggins and extended the county’s drought disaster declaration — a move that essentially closes down the New Year’s fireworks season in Guadalupe County. Wiggins’s declaration and the governor’s agreement mirror what happened last June when the July 4th fireworks season was closed.
Wiggins made the decision after initially working with fireworks vendors to try to open a series of safe zones in the county so that fireworks sellers could enjoy the profits of at least a shortened season and residents could then fire off their incendiaries on New Year’s Eve.
On Tuesday, Guadalupe County Emergency Management Coordinator Dan Kinsey presented Wiggins and commissioners a series of three sites the official visited with fireworks sellers and Seguin Fire Marshal Greg Dreiss late last week.
Kinsey said he was impressed with the level of preparation and thought put into safety, but pointed out that Bexar County had declared a disaster of its own the day before, citing the driest conditions in that county since officials kept records. Bexar County decided not to open the safe zones it tried in July because officials there believed it would be too dangerous. On Wednesday, Perry extended Bexar County’s ban through New Year’s weekend, as well.
Comal, Wilson and Gonzales counties have also banned fireworks and were awaiting requested action by Perry to extend their bans on Friday. Late Friday afternoon, Comal County Commissioner’s Court Administrative Assistant Crystal Gottfried confirmed Perry had extended the declaration for that county just as he had Guadalupe County.
Kinsey said Friday afternoon he knew of no request for a disaster extension in the current drought emergency that Perry had not signed.
“I would say this is an absolute vindication of the county judge’s position,” Kinsey said. “This was not a rubber stamp — there’s a full process involved in considering this question.”
Kinsey said county officials sent the governor information on how many wind-driven wild fires local volunteer departments were fighting, and the county’s standing on the Keetch-Byram Drought Index, the 0-800 scale standard for determining moisture content in the ground and the resultant level of risk for wild fire.
Guadalupe County’s drought condition Friday remained above the 700 level — considered “exceptional” by state emergency planners — in spite of recent light morning rains and fog.
In his letter to the governor asking for the extension, Wiggins explained he had been working with the fireworks firms, as Perry asked last summer, on a compromise that would have enabled a limited season in spite of the drought.
“We asked for three or four safe zones as a minimum,” Kinsey said. “They gave us the absolute minimum we requested for our population of 100,000, not the 2 million who live in the entire region.”
Kinsey said Sheriff Arnold Zwicke and county commissioners expressed concerns about whether the three zones would be enough if fireworks were outlawed in almost every surrounding county.
“We were the only ones considering safe zones,” Kinsey said. “What would have happened if we had them and no one else in the region did?”
“We realize that not everyone here in the county was going to shoot fireworks,” Kinsey said. “But we had three safe zones, and if you take whatever ratio of Guadalupe County residents did choose to shoot them and extended that ratio over 20 times, how many would that be? How many people would come? It becomes a huge unknown, and you can’t operate with that big an unknown when it comes to public safety.”
Friday’s declaration by Perry effectively ends the prospect of a fireworks season that would have started on Saturday. But it doesn’t end the prospect of litigation over the declarations, which dates back to 2005 when Acting Comal County Judge Jan Kennady declared a disaster emergency just before New Year’s Eve. Mr. W Fireworks out of San Antonio promptly sued the county, a lawsuit including restraining order that resulted in a very unusual Saturday hearing before Judge Gary Steel of Guadalupe County, who presides in the 274th Judicial District.
Steel upheld Kennady’s action and that case is still going through appeals. In June, 2nd 25th Judicial District Judge W.C. Kirkendall heard a similar suit by Mr. W Fireworks and sided with Guadalupe County.
One fireworks seller, Alamo Fireworks, has filed suit in Bexar County seeking $400,000 in disaster relief for the civic groups and non-profits who sell its fireworks and depend on the proceeds to meet their budgets.
Mr. W Fireworks, a county official said late Friday, is believed to have been preparing a lawsuit over the expense reportedly involved in selecting and preparing the three unused safe zones.
An employee in the District Clerk’s Office said no filing had been seen by 4 p.m. on Friday.
One of the Guadalupe County non-profits feeling the pinch of the shuttered fireworks season is County Line Volunteer Fire Department, which uses the proceeds from its partnership with Mr. W Fireworks to pay for trucks and equipment.
Chief Bill Gebhardt’s department worked with Mr. W and with property owners in the county’s southern reaches to develop one of those safe zones, but Gebhardt wants no part of any legal wrangling over the issue.
“I’m a firefighter, for goodness sakes,” Gebhardt said. “I understand both sides.”
Gebhardt is asking his First Commercial Bank loan officer to extend his department’s credit on a $7,000 payment due next month for a truck and an ambulance, and is seeking additional help to get the local match that would enable him to get a $70,000 Texas Forest Service grant for another truck.
“They’re trying to work with us,” Gebhardt said Friday. “If they can’t help us, I’m not sure what we’ll do.”
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