by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The Fourth of July holiday can be a bang of a good time for many, but a Wellington resident expressed his displeasure with the holiday at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

Wellington resident Perry Wiley questioned the current fireworks policy. The council decided it will revisit the issue at a later date.

During the audience participation Wiley made the following statement:

“I think the fireworks got out of hand this year… It wasn’t too well enforced. I couldn’t get up and down my street because of all the fireworks. I spoke to a lady who works at Sterling House and she couldn’t get there because of the fireworks by the apartments near Sterling House.

“In short of banning all fireworks, which I would be in favor of, they should be banned in residential areas. They should only be shot in parks or ballfields or wherever.”

Perry said he had to pick up fireworks residue from his yard for two days and wasn’t able to get on his roof of his house but worried about fireworks up there.

“The length of time when fireworks are being shot is too long this year,” Wiley said. “10 a.m. to 10 p.m. is plenty of time to detonate fireworks. Everyone likes to stay up past 10 p.m. but on the fourth of July I went to sleep at 12:15 a.m. because people were still shooting off then even though they weren’t supposed to.”

He also said that the size of the fireworks needs to be addressed. You can hear some of them pop off more than a mile away. He suggested posting rules on shooting fireworks.

Wellington City Council member Vince Wetta said he has been gone during the holidays for five or six consecutive years, but was around this year and was surprised how much things have changed.

“Fireworks are bigger, they are prettier than they were in the past,” Wetta said. “I don’t think we should ban fireworks because that can’t be enforced. But I’d like to look at the current ordinance.”

Council member B.J. Tracy said when he first got on the council several years back he had suggested banning fireworks because he had worked for the fire department and about the liability attached to it.

“They about hung me from the nearest flag pole for suggesting it,” Tracy said. “Then we talked about restricting the area (to shoot off fireworks). If I remember right the opinion then was if you had designated fireworks area, then it would cause the city more liability because we would be congesting people together – which could result in more accidents.”

Wellington Mayor Roger Stallbaumer suggested the city council look at the issue during a future work session.

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