The tide is slowly turning on fireworks

50% cut for TNT Fireworks. How nice for them...Next they will be telling us that the funds support our Troops in Iraq! In reality some of the funds support Chinese laborers that make the fireworks.


Newark CA puts freeze on fireworks permits
No new applicants will be allowed to sell pyrotechnics
By Angela Woodall, STAFF WRITER
Article Last Updated: 03/10/2007 02:37:26 AM PST
http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/localnews/ci_5406408

NEWARK — Newark groups that depend on annual Fourth of July fireworks sales to raise money should hold on to their permits.

This year, the city will be turning away new applicants in an effort to stem the flow of prohibited pyrotechnics that pop up during Independence Day festivities.

Every year there is a sigh of relief after July 4, Mayor Dave Smith said.

"Whew, we made it again," he said, referring to the danger posed by illicit fireworks.

Only the already participating groups will be allowed to set up shop in the future.

Newark, Union City and Dublin are the only cities in Alameda County that permit vendors to sell pyrotechnics.

The city began cracking down on contraband pyrotechnics six years ago with a zero-tolerance policy that includes tougher penalties, closing parks early and boosting police presence on July 4.

The policy also limited the number of Safe and Sane fireworks stands to 13.

Groups that were selling fireworks already and applied were given booth permits.

There now are 12 permitted vendors, a number that would continue to shrink over time due to attrition if the permit ban works as anticipated.

However, the fire department could permit a new applicant if the number of vendors shrinks too drastically.

Fireworks sales are a major source of income to organizations such as the League of Volunteers and the Farmers and Farmerettes, a Newark square dance group that grossed about $70,000 from pyrotechnic sales last year.

That figure is about average for the other groups, said Donald Baker, fireworks chairman for the Farmers and Farmerettes.

Most of the revenue goes to fees, charity donations and a 50 percent cut for the distributor, TNT Fireworks, he added.

The money-making potential made the permit freeze one of the most contentious issues to come before the normally harmonious City Council.

Council members Luis Freitas and Sue Johnson contested the move, but ultimately voted in favor of it at the Thursday council meeting.

Johnson suggested a lottery system because the freeze would prevent nonprofits that do not already have permits from ever getting a shot at selling the lucrative fireworks, which doesn't seem fair, she said.

Smith and council members Al Nagy and Ana Apodaca cited safety as the reason for their support of the freeze.

Fewer booths would not eliminate the risk, but would reduce it, Nagy said. In addition, it would prevent nonprofits from being overly dependent on one source of income, Apodaca said.

"We want (July 4) to be safe and sane. But it's not safe and sane out there," she added.