Seen from across the water from the Nolan Center lawn, fireworks illuminate the sky above City Dock during the culmination of Wrangell's four-day Independence Day last year.
At last week's meeting of the Borough Assembly, members were asked to reconsider city ordinances banning the use and sale of a variety of explosive projectiles on and around the island.
Resident Marilyn Mork came forward during the meeting's "persons to be heard" segment, and expressed an interest in allowing at least a temporary lightening of Chapter 9.12 in the Code, which deals with fireworks. Because of the Chamber of Commerce's announcement last month that the July 4 fireworks display is being rescheduled to the preceding evening,
Mork said a number of people had expressed an interest in putting on their own displays.
"I've had a lot of people call me and ask 'can we have this?'" she explained. "Because Fourth of July is going to be pretty quiet, people are going to be getting fireworks somewhere."
Formerly in business of selling recreational fireworks, Mork pointed out local laws no longer allow her to
oblige. Wrangell has had rules on the books concerning fireworks since at least 1969, but much of its current rules on the items were adopted
following its becoming a borough, in 2009. "Torpedoes, Roman candles, rockets, sky bombs, sky rockets," and
other such devices have since been barred from discharge within Wrangell's corporate limits. The ordinance was further updated in 2015 to put it in keeping with the city fine schedule.
Mork also wanted to know what the extent of the "Wrangell Island Service Area" entails, being the area where sale of such items are also barred in the Code.
She was hopeful she could go beyond that extent if necessary to sell fireworks. It brought up an interesting question, as the area can depend on one's definitions. Finance director Lee Burgess explained, for example, that for property
tax purposes that area is limited to road and utility access.
In this case the definitions are more specifically laid out, encompassing the whole of Wrangell at the time of the rules' adoption.
"It was borough-wide," explained Wrangell Police Chief Doug McCloskey.
The measures were adopted for safety reasons, with language updated allowing the chiefs of police and fire departments to give written
permission for public pyrotechnic displays. The July 4 display, for instance, is a carefully put together display conducted by members of Wrangell Volunteer Fire Department.
With that defined, Mork sought the Assembly's support in allowing a temporary ordinance change allowing for at least the sale of the fireworks. If possible, she hoped it could make the next meeting's agenda for a decision, in time for her to place an order. "It'd be nice to keep the money here," she explained.
Clerk Kim Lane explained those avenues – an ordinance change proposed either by the Assembly or by petition – could take more than a couple of months, and changes to this particular ordinance would need to be run by police for their approval.
Mayor David Jack felt allowing for such sales when the discharge of fireworks remained on the books would be counterproductive, given the short-handedness of Wrangell's police. Currently the department has four officers, with three vacancies.
Another member of the public, Bernie Massin, spoke up in favor of allowing a more liberally monitored display on the Fourth. He floated the idea of permitting an "open use" display where members of the public could go to discharge fireworks, such as at the horse track.
Noting the risks and unseen liabilities of that, Assembly members were largely unreceptive to the suggestion. No action was expected to be taken.
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