Santa Maria holds community meeting on fireworks

The City of Santa Maria hosted a community meeting Tuesday night seeking public input on the sale and use of legal, Safe and Sane fireworks near the Fourth of July and the use of illegal fireworks which is a constant complaint in the city.

Those who attended the meeting Tuesday night at the Minami Community Center included representatives of local non-profit groups that rely on the sale of Safe and Sane fireworks every year to raise money for various causes.

Others in attendance were local residents concerned about the use of illegal fireworks in their neighborhoods.

“After the last Independence Day we heard from a lot of different citizens both in favor and opposing fireworks about their experiences”, said Assistant City Manager Patrick Wiemiller who hosted the community meeting Tuesday night, “with that much feedback coming in to the administration and the City Council we thought it would be good to sort of formalize our outreach to the community and give people a chance to give a voice to their opinions as they relate to fireworks.”

The public input will be collected and forwarded to the City Council at a future date.

“We really don’t have data that backs up in our city at least that this has been a true fire challenge”, Wiemiller said, “there’s been a lot of other things like loud noises and some of the trash left on the streets that’s been some of the experiences, and certainly loud noises as they relate to upsetting pets or upsetting people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and those sorts of things and so we want to make sure we have a voice and discussion on all of those topics.”

The next community meeting will be held on Thursday, December 6th, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Mussell Senior Center at 510 East Park Avenue.

Questions may be directed to the City Manager’s Office at (805) 925-0951, extension 2399.