City Council - Regular Meeting

I call this hybrid regular council meeting on 03/24/2026 to order at 07:00PM. Tonight, we have the honor of having Kanan Harvey here to lead us on the pledge of allegiance. Kanan is a fifth grader who attended our mock city council meeting a couple minute couple months ago. So Kanan, if you would come on up front here, and I'll see if this microphone is working. I think it is. So set this there and Kanan, there's the flag right there. You hold this and you leave us when we're when you're ready to go.

Take all hats and all hoods off, please. Ready. Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Okay. Nice job, Kanan. You can stay right there. I'm gonna get a picture with a certificate. Okay. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Mayor Olsen.

Here.

Deputy mayor Creeley.

Here.

Councilmember Pazaruski? Here. Councilmember Ramirez?

Here.

Councilmember Keith? Here. Councilmember Rasmus has an excused absence this evening. Council member Edwards? Here. Council member Suthard?

Here.

Rule is complete.

Okay. Thank you, Jill. And then council or, yeah, council, in keeping with our recent practice of suspending council rules of procedure to move to the new desired five minute of audience comment for both public hearings and regular audience comment, and then up to seven minutes if somebody is speaking on behalf of a group, I'll entertain a motion to suspend our council rules of procedure to honor what I just said. I'll make a motion to suspend council rules.

I Paziriewski.

Yeah. I think I heard Paziriewski for the first second. So we have a motion, and a second on the floor. And I believe we allow for discussion. So, Jason or council member Ramirez, this is a council meeting, not a study session. Council member Ramirez, you have the floor.

Anything that helps the public express how they feel is a good idea.

K. Council member Hazarouski.

Same with me. It's, sometimes hard to get everything out what you wanna say in three minutes, so I'm glad that we we're extending it just a few more minutes.

Any other council comment before we vote? K. And a motion to suspend council rules of procedure requires a super majority, so we need at least five votes tonight. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. Okay. Motion carries. So we will now allow five minutes for everyone that would like to speak during the public hearing and up to seven minutes if somebody wants to speak on behalf of a group. So we now are moving to the public hearing.

So tonight, we're conducting a public hearing. The public hearing we are conducting this evening is regarding fireworks. Agenda bill 26 dash 100. A public hearing is a one way communication that allows citizens to present testimony on a specific topic for this city council's consideration in their decision making process. Please frame your testimony as a statement of fact or opinion rather than as a question.

When it is your turn to speak, those attending in person should approach the podium, while virtual attendees should use the raise hand option in Zoom. I will call on you when it's your turn. Please state your name and your city of residence for the record. You will then have up to five minutes to speak. Now a couple things. You don't have to speak for a full five minutes. There's not bonus points for taking up the whole five minutes. I think sometimes you can get your point in, and we we will record that accordingly. And so you don't need to use all five minutes. And I have a bunch of people.

We had two two sign up sheets. We had a a public hearing and a regular audience comment, and we had a dozen people or so sign up on the audience comment, and they all stated fireworks. Now I think their intention was to sign up during the public hearing, so I will honor those sign up sheets for the public hearing. So you'll you'll get your chance to speak at the the the proper portion. So just wanted to point that out.

So with all of that said, I will call this public hearing to order at 07:06PM. Now, normally, when we get to a public hearing, we start with an update from staff, and then council will ask some questions of staff, and then we turn it over to the public. So in this case, I'm gonna take on the the the role of staff here because I kinda am staff. But this is where we are with what's going on with, fireworks. We have our council rules of procedure allow city council members to place an item on the agenda with the support of at least one other council member.

And in this case, deputy mayor Mark Creeley, requested that we place a consideration for removing or or repealing the ordinance that banned fireworks in the city, and council member Ramirez, joined him, that was the second. So, therefore, it's before, the council. Now timing of how this is gonna work, we have an actual vote on this on Tuesday, April 14, three weeks from tonight. That's when the actual vote will happen. We're gonna talk about it once more on April 7 at our study session.

And then, of course, tonight, we have the the public hearing to take all your input. A few other things. There is the option to send off or send in your public comments. In the last couple of weeks, we've received 21 emails. 15 spoke out against repealing the ban, and six spoke out in favor of repealing the ban.

Now just to know how the ban works, I I view it as there's three different fireworks rules that could be in effect. There's the state guidelines, which are not too restrictive, but there are still state laws that need to be followed. There's what Edgewood has had for many years was what I would refer to as a partial ban, and that's what's kind of been in effect for many, many years here in Edgewood, a partial ban. And then there's what is currently in effect, which I would call a full ban. That's just my opinion.

The state guidelines, the old Edgewood partial ban, and then the current full ban. Now anything other than the state guidelines, whether or not it's a partial ban or a full ban, when the council enacts that ordinance, it takes a full year for that to take effect. Now the if I you know, I mean, don't mean to speak for deputy mayor Creeley or council member Ramirez, but the kind of intention was to go back to the old partial ban. However, they can do that and still get fireworks this year on America's two hundred and fiftieth because it takes a year for that partial ban to go in effect. So we almost have to and again, we I mean, I'm speaking for if if the ban is repealed, they're gonna have to go two steps back and then go one step forward for 07/04/2027.

But it's because of how the rules work. Revoking a ban is immediate, but instilling a ban or a partial ban or whatever you wanna call it takes a year to take effect. So hopefully, didn't confuse you on that. I'm just just trying to help you out. But I think when it comes down to it, there's people that are for fireworks and people that are against fireworks, and that's that's the main thing. So are there any questions about and this is by, sorry, by council. Any questions, council, that you have of me, you have of chief, you have of staff? Again, we're just at questions for clarification. Are are we good to proceed to the public hearing? Yes. Council member Keith.

I just want to make sure that we're gonna get a presentation on police and fire data prior to voting on this. So head to head, I guess that would be last year versus the year before. Right? The year before was

Correct.

Okay. And then New Year's Eve and fourth of July data for both fire and police.

Yeah. And I believe that will be on the April 7 study set Right.

Before we vote.

Agenda. Correct.

Gotcha.

So and then one thing I didn't mention, the the total ban that is currently in effect was passed in September 2023, but didn't go in effect till September 2024. So that's why the July 2024, we still had the partial ban in effect. The full ban didn't take place until last year. So there's technically only been one year on a July 4 where the full ban was in effect, and that was that was last year. So just point that out.

Okay. I think we are ready to go to the public hearing. And, again, if if everyone's fine, I think I'm gonna go with this list because I think the intention of this list were people. So looks like Andrew Teague. Andrew. And we put our put our podium right there. And, again, Andrew, I think I just read the rules a couple minutes ago, so they should remember them. You have up to five minutes. And remember, this is your statement to us. It's not a q and a, so we can't really ask it or answer any questions. But Okay. Fire away.

So I have to admit, I actually thought this meeting was to ban fireworks. I only moved here a few years ago. And so I grew up in an area that you can everybody shot fireworks. It was, a big thing. Everybody did.

Then I moved to an area that they didn't. And it was there's a police running around doing whack a mole because everybody was still shooting fireworks because it's just what people do. And, well, then we move here, I see everybody shooting fireworks. And, the thing is, about it is, like, it's like a community thing where everybody gets together, and it's, you know, the kids are having fun. The family's having fun.

Neighbors are getting together doing this. It's it's also money going into the local economy. People see some fireworks stand people here. So as opposed to people buying out of town or not at all. So I just feel that it's a good thing to have for the community. And that's all I had to say.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah. And just I'll say it one last time. We currently have a ban. So if you're in favor of repealing the ban, you're kind of profiler works. You'd wanna remove the ban, or you can speak on keeping the ban in effect. So okay. Next up, I'm gonna switch over to this list to mix it up. Looks like John Saruman. Okay. Sauls oh, Salzman. Sorry. John Salzman.

Alright.

So a little my name is John Salzman. Little about me. I am a state licensed pyrotechnician. I am a member of the Pyrotechnics Guild International, a member of the Western Pyrotechnics Association, and a member of the Northwest Pyrotechnics Association. So it's safe to say I do a lot of fireworks, and I'm around a lot of fireworks. We've been doing business. I'm one third owner of Firefly Fireworks. We've been doing business in Edgewood since 2019, And I like to think that we provide a product that is a safe state regulated product. Data proves that out. It proves that fireworks year over year have gotten safer over the last several decades.

Less fires, less injuries. Things are tested rigorously. There's multiple agencies responsible for testing and regulating fireworks. We have to deal with all kinds of different agencies in order to get everything squared away for our stand. I wanna make sure that when people are making a decision on whether to repeal this ban or keep it, that they're making that decision based on facts and data.

And the facts prove that fireworks are safer than they have ever been. Feelings are not how we should be voting for them. I I understand that, like, people don't like fireworks or they have pets that don't like fireworks. My dog doesn't. I could show you a thirty second video right now with some of the biggest fireworks you've ever seen at a PGI, pyrotechnic skill pyrotechnic skill international display, and he slept through the whole thing. It's not because he's deaf. He's just completely indifferent. So that's more of an ownership thing. I have owned my dog and taken him to fireworks events. He's been to so many fireworks events, and he doesn't have a problem with it.

So it's not like all animals are affected. My business partner submitted, a a packet to the email that hopefully all of you have gotten or will have a chance to see and look through because he actually went to the fire marshal. He went to the fire department. He went to all of these people and got the data and compiled that for you so you can see the data and not just locally. He has the data in his packet from national statistics.

He has this data on I mean, everything is in here. Right? So Edgewood's fire, he's gonna talk more on that during his time, but, you know, how bans in California and Hawaii have basically not worked at all. All they've done is is served to do is deny themselves any kind of income that would have gone towards other things. Right?

We we put a lot of work into our stand. We put a lot of work into the fireworks we select to make sure that we're getting good products, that we're making safe decisions. We like to think that rather than banning fireworks, that instead a better focus would be on educating people on the safe usage of fireworks. All fireworks have a label on them on multiple sides because that's a requirement on how to safely use them, on what not to do, on the danger that is involved with using them improperly. And that is typically when you see a news article about something that's happened with fireworks.

It's because it's being improperly used, not because of the fire. And that's not something you can regulate because you can't ban stupidity, unfortunately. So, you know, the the options are you keep this ban. And what do people do? They're gonna go to they're gonna go to preservation. They're gonna go to Muckleshoot Reservation. They're gonna go any number of directions, and they're gonna be able to get fireworks. The big difference being, whereas we sell state regulated fireworks, there, it's the Wild West. There's people selling all kinds of stuff. Who knows what?

A lot of it is overloaded. A lot of it is quite a bit more dangerous than consumer fire because it hasn't gone through that same testing fire testing process as your consumer fireworks that you get at a state regulated stand. So I'm in favor of repealing the ban. I lived in Edgewood through all my teen years. Like, now, obviously, like, if we were to repeal this ban, we'd be bringing our business back to Edgewood. And I remember growing up with fireworks, doing them in this city, and I think we should remain that way to keep doing that. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. And then keeping with my guidance, are your occurrences in the Edgewood? Okay. Sounds good. Okay. We are next to Clara Rossi. Clara will step to the microphone now. Thank you, Clara.

You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence. Abraham Lincoln. As of 09/19/2024, fireworks are banned in the city of Edgewood. This includes private use of fireworks on Independence Day, and it is considered a civil infraction to violate this law. The fine for violating is $250. But does this represent freedom? On a day set aside to celebrate freedom, we are denied the right to celebrate with fireworks. Hi. My name is Clara Rossi. I'm an eighth grade student, and I have lived in Edgewood for over five years.

I ask the council members to repeal the law that is restraining the citizens of Edgewood from the display of fireworks. Independence Day is the day to celebrate our country's freedom. America was not given. It was earned by brave people who chose to rise up against tyranny. For years, people have celebrated the birth of our country with fireworks. When they are used in a safe and responsible way, they are a beautiful reminder of how our country came to be and this and help us not to take for granted the freedom we have. This year is America's 200 birthday. That is something worth celebrating. Fireworks are not just something we do for fun. They are a testament to our freedom, our country, and to all the people who gave their lives for America.

Some people might say that it is right to ban fireworks in our city. They would say that fireworks are unsafe and a fire hazard. But when they are used with safe and proper precautions and when with wisdom, they can be much safer and absolutely stunning. We might also say that they make too much noise and bother pets. This reason is inadequate because there is only one day a year set aside to celebrate our freedom. And they are not just annoying. Lighting off fireworks shows patriotism and pride for our country. There are other options to comfort pets for one day a year. It is important that we celebrate our freedom. If we don't use our freedom, what is the point in having it?

I once again urge the members of the council to reconsider the firework ban. Thank you for listening.

Thank you, Clara. K. Next up, I'm gonna go to Debbie Wright. Hello, Debbie.

I'm Debbie Wright. I live in Edgewood. I've been a resident at Edgewood, I don't know, twenty five years. I personally enjoy fireworks. I believe that the ban should be lifted fully. Fireworks are safe. I also believe that having the ban is an infringement on my constitutional rights of free speech. Thank you.

K. Thank you, Debbie. K. Let's go over to Taylor Storms.

Good evening, council members, and I wanna thank you all for hearing us this evening and giving us the opportunity to share our feelings and state the facts on this current matter. My name is Taylor, and my family and I have lived in Edgewood for nearly nine years on our small farm with horses. I'm speaking tonight in support of keeping our current fireworks ban in place. Edgewood is a rural community with many open fields, pastures, and families who care deeply about safety and quality of life. Fireworks may seem like harmless celebrations, but in these specific settings, they can pose very real dangers.

Fireworks can easily ignite dry grass or hay. My own neighbor's pasture caught on fire last year from stray fireworks. We were fortunate that East Pierce Fire and Rescue responded quickly, but incidents like this show how quickly things can go wrong. Over the years prior to this ordinance, we saw firsthand how bad things can get. Fireworks would go off for days before and after the holiday, sometimes late into the evening, frightening livestock and setting nerves on edge.

Despite extensive bombproof training as it is referred to in the horse industry, our horses were very terrified, and it was impossible to keep them safe except by restraint or sedation. Many of our neighbors, especially those with small children, pets, or livestock shared in similar struggles. Since ordinance 23 dash zero six four nine was adopted to ban the sale and discharge of fireworks, our neighborhood has seen a real difference. While not everyone followed the law, the reduction was substantial. For the first time since living in Edgewood, we could let our horses graze safely instead of keeping them confined and enjoyed barbecuing in the backyard with friends and family.

Friends and others with anxious pets came to our place last year because Edgewood was a reprieve from other cities that are only governed by chapter seven zero dot seven seven RCW. The quiet wasn't total, but it was meaningful, and it showed the ordinance was working. I also want to remind us how much strain fireworks do put on first responders. I grew up with the police department, and across Washington, departments routinely report that the July 4 is one of their busiest nights due to grass fires, injuries, and noise complaints. The fireworks ban in Edgewood frees up valuable resources for real emergencies.

This ordinance makes Edgewood safer for everyone, including families, animals, our neighbors, and first responders. I urge the council to keep Edgewood's fireworks ban in place so our community can continue to enjoy a safe and peaceful fourth of July, one that celebrates our freedoms without endangering our homes or one another. Thank you for your time and for listening to the residents who value a safer edge.

Thank you, Taylor. Okay. Next up, Damon Kramer or Kromer Kromer. Hello, Damon. Again, if you could state your city of residence and fire away. You got five minutes.

I'm Damon Cromar, a resident of Pacific down at the bottom of the hill. I am one of the owners of Firefly Fireworks, longtime retailer of fire consumer fireworks here in Edgewood prior to the ban. We currently operate in Sumner down at the bottom of the hill, and I can tell you we still retain our customer base throughout Edgewood and surrounding area. So this ban has diverted tax dollars and permit fees that we give to the city of Edgewood to our community up here elsewhere outside of the border of the community. These folks are still shopping with us.

I know, every one of them does not support the ban in place, and I'm here to speak on the behalf of all our consumers prior to the ban being enacted. Every single shopper with us is a boat to do something, and we get great joy, not just a financial incentive out of this, is I get to see the grandfather come in. This is his one celebration with his family. I get to watch the grandkids learn how to budget their chore money and pick out their favorites from last year or what is new this year. And decades have gone by, and I get to see the celebrations that fireworks have existed for two thousand years coming out of China, and now part of our celebration since the founding of this country.

It's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. I'm hoping that Edgewood would allow us to celebrate that. I understand there's a lot of complaints from the community. It's very difficult, and we understand and we sympathize with those that do have difficulties with fireworks. My wife is a veteran of the US military, and she suffers from PTSD. She's a 100% disabled. Now it is form of PTSD that is not recognized as being triggered by loud noises and sounds. We're fortunate for that. And I understand that some do. We do ask that they get the proper care to help manage their conditions.

Some of it will never go away. I have a lot of veterans, my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and a recently, past friend, none of which have ever spoken against fireworks. They fought for freedom. They've suffered great loss personal loss of freedoms. And I know it's a little silly to say why do we have to be loud and rowdy to celebrate our freedom, but that's just kinda what we are as Americans, loud and rowdy ever since the beginning of this country is founded.

It is a large amount of sparkle and joy and all that. And I know not everyone has to partake of that, but we end up seeing that joy as people come in. And then I get to work, a candy shop, my feelings to deliver this joy to other families and experiences that is shared across the world. This is not just unique to America. Fireworks are celebrated for happy causes all across the world.

I mentioned my deceased friend. He was a Vietnam medic, and he passed this last year. And one of the things he was able to help treat was PTSD was use consumer fireworks. He was able to go to his local fireworks stand, use fireworks, and it gave him a sense of control what he did not have in a battlefield. And we understand that it's not a therapy session for anyone.

Everyone is different, and we always hear this argument. He has never asked for anyone to use his stuff to argue to ban something. Or as I'm trying to say in favor of it, I'm just saying it's not a monolith. It's not a universal shared thing, but we should have a vote of the people in order to celebrate as we are celebrating our 200 birthday in America. As my previous business partner mentioned, I submitted a large packet of information including the fire statistics.

My background is environmental science. I specialized in hazardous waste material management. And when it comes to data, climatology, disposing of waste, I am an expert in my field. I've been a pyrotechnic person for over eighteen years now professionally and all that. The ordinance before the ban that allowed the fire marshal to call a, a ban on fireworks was one that we supported.

It was able to basically have the fire marshal in consultation with the mayor, declare a ban in order to protect ourselves during the fourth of July. New Year's Eve, it'd be good luck to set anything on fire out in the rain. This ban bans fireworks year round. And, you know, my time's coming in, so I'm just gonna sum up that we do support it. I encourage the council to read my packet and compile the data in there. The fire, danger for this area is low. Bigger to the band, two prior to that, two. Thank you for your time. Okay.

Thank you. Katrina Doha.

Hello. My name is Katrina Doan. I am not a resident of Edgewood, and I came to be standing here through an unusual circuitous route. I'm a retired school teacher. I did not grow up with fireworks. In fact, I was afraid of them. I was terrified of them. But when I was teaching, took in one of my students as a foster child, and she ended up being a great gymnast, and I had no idea how I was going to pay for it. Another teacher said, hey, we run a fireworks stand to pay for our daughter's gymnastics. Why don't you come help us? And I said, I don't know anything about them and I'm scared of them. He said, just get out here. So I did. And I had a blast, to use a bad pun. Well, fast forward, I ran a firework stand for twenty nine years.

And during that time, I came to see some statistics that were so powerful that I am now retired from teaching, and I am committed to working with cities in our region on helping them to get to the safest for their community. Side note, one of my other passions, I volunteer in animal rescue. Obviously, I want the safest for humans and for the critters that I love. So what am I going to share with you? I am absolutely in favor of repealing the ban, and I'll tell you why.

First of all, you mentioned that we're here to talk about fireworks. The term fireworks is an umbrella term. And there's so many different categories within that. And what happens is people will often say, ban fireworks. And I ask them all the time, because people tell me this all the time, tell me what you hate. Almost always. I hate the ones that are so loud that they rattle my windows and they scare my pets and the vets and my kids. I'm like, yeah, I hate those too. Those are horrid. Those are in a category.

Anything that's not loud that does that is not a legal consumer grade firework. We have consumer grade fireworks that are in the state operated stands. There are very illegal fireworks that are illegal statewide, and they are illegal for a reason, and they should stay illegal. Any of those things that shake, rattle and roll you, that go flying totally out of control I think they said bottle rockets cause 82% of fireworks fires those are in this category illegal. They need to stay that way. But what happens is people don't realize there's two categories. So they, Ah, a bottle rocket landed on my roof. We need to ban fireworks. So what gets banned? The consumer grade fireworks that don't do those things.

Those are the safer alternative. And so when you take those away from being accessible in a community, where do they go? To the place where they can get more of these that we don't want. So it's very counterintuitive, But a ban generally increases the problem and increases because people accidentally get, not even realizing they're getting the illegal ones. So I want to make sure that differentiation is clear.

I've used the example of it's like somebody saying, I hate the sound of weed blowers, so let's ban lawn mowers. Well, they're all yard implements, but it doesn't make sense to ban something that's not the source of the biggest problem. A couple of quick stories I want to tell you. Because I've worked with this, I've got a whole body of research. I collect articles when I hear about them, as I talk to fire marshals. Down in Oregon, there's two cities and I'm not going to name cities that are close by. One of them banned fireworks a couple of years ago. One of them did not. After the season, they looked at the statistics. One of them had a huge increase in problems, one of them did not.

Guess which one had the increase in problems? The one that had the ban, because people went and they got more of the dangerous ones. The city that allowed their residents access to the ones that are much safer when used appropriately, as somebody else very wisely mentioned, their community stayed calmer. So much so that the fire marshal from a neighboring community wrote a letter, and it's one of my favorite letters in my file, and the opening title was, Please Stop Banning Fireworks. Don't do it.

It's making it worse. That's coming from a fire official. So I leave that story. And then I also wanted to tell you real quickly, because I have forty seconds, about a community in South Seattle. I went and approached the mayor, and he said to me, Katrina, we've got a twenty five year trial of a ban. I owe it to my residents to try something different. So they did a partial ban. On July 4, the fire chief and police chief went out to see what was happening. And the fire chief was just like, oh my gosh. We saw families enjoying safe items that weren't flying all over, and they were having a great time.

And when they came after the season, they do a postseason report, they were giddy because they said that was the lowest number of calls for service that we've had in twenty five years. And they've so much said that. They said, Katrina, you have any city call us. Have police chief call police chief. The fire chief has retired and moved out of the area, But the city council president from that time is now the mayor, and they said, talk to us. Don't ban fireworks. These modified bans are gonna give you the safest for your community, and statistics show that. So I beg you not to keep the ban.

Okay. Thank you, Katrina Doan. So sorry about that. Okay. We next up, we have Randy Seerle. Kerley. Darn it.

No problem. It's all good. I've been called every name in the books. Yeah.

Okay. Randy Kerley.

Hi. My name is Randy Kerley. I am not an a resident of Edgewood. I live in, Kennewick, Washington. I am the area manager for TNT Fireworks.

So I cover Edgewood, Milton, Pierce County, Kitsap County, Jefferson County, Mason County, the whole peninsula. What I would like to say tonight is that I understand that Edgewood has the current ban, but, unfortunately, bans just don't work. What they do is they force the the people that wanna celebrate, that should be allowed to celebrate and exercise their freedoms to go to areas that sell the fireworks. Study was done a few years back, and the the question was asked, if you had the option, where would you buy your fireworks? And 75% said that I would I would buy them as close to my house as possible.

They don't want to go away from their house. They want to buy they want to buy them close to their house. Well, when you ban, you lose all regulation. Sorry. You lose all regulation at that point. The only option you have at that point is to enforce the ban. You no longer have the options that you do with within the the system. It's just to enforce the ban. And what happens is those those very people, they go to Fife or they go to Puyallup or they go to Spanaway or they go up to Moncoshoot or they go all over the place and they buy fireworks. Little story when I was a kid, my family would go out to the Yakima tribe in Tappanish, and we would buy fireworks.

And there was this guy, a native, and I totally support the Native Americans selling what they want on their that's their that's their sovereign land, and I get it. But he goes he goes to me and is like, hey. Come here. We wanna buy the good stuff. And as a kid, he was trying to get me to buy a quarter stick of dynamite.

Let that sink in. I was a kid, and this adult selling the native fireworks that they do, they do they were sell trying to sell me a quarter stick of dynamite. I can assure you that at a t at at a TNT fireworks stand, we will never sell you a quarter stick of dynamite. We will only sell what is state legal or what is the the legal in the municipality. They just don't work.

Jefferson County up in Port Hadlock, two years ago, they or actually three years ago, they instituted a change in their in their, ordinance to allow the fire officials a lot more leeway in doing temporary bans. Looks like in a in a moment's notice, they could do a temporary ban. So they did a temporary ban. It was literally raining. They did a temporary ban, said it was a burn burn hazard.

I don't understand that, but they did it. The operator that was selling fireworks up at Port Hadlock, she overlooked a state park where fireworks are illegal in the state park. She watched on the July 4, the night of the fourth of July, more fireworks in the state park than they ever had before ever. And she cried because none of them were hers, and her organization lost on all sales. Yet, the whole night in a state park, there was illegal fireworks being being shot off because people are going to going to do this.

They're going to they they it's just the way it is. They the ban only pushes things away from what's safe to the potential of things that are unsafe. I as you probably understand and notice, I do not support a ban. I fully support a repeal of the ban. If you want to pick and choose the fireworks that you don't like, the bigger the bigger stuff, you can you have that option to do that.

You can modify the ban. The city that I that I grew up in and I live in right now, Kenilah, Washington, we just recently after a twenty five year ban, they just recently repealed their ban, and they went to a safe and saint modified ban. The city of Pasco, which is right across the River Of Kennewick, four, five years ago, they did it first. They repealed a ban that had been in place for twenty five, thirty years. City of Tukwila just four years ago in 2022.

After having a ban forever, they understood. They repealed the ban, and their numbers of calls drastically dropped. The city of SeaTac just three years ago did the exact same thing where they repealed the ban. The July 4 is a time to celebrate our freedoms, not a time to restrict. It is not a time to divide but to bring together, and that's what the Fourth of July does. So I I hope you guys do it. If you have any questions, please please reach out. Thank you so much.

Okay. Thank you. Next up, Nisha Patel. K. Gonna concede her time. Next up, Fred Albert.

Hello?

Hello, Fred. Hi. Fred Albert, president of Edgewood, forty four years. So I guess that a couple of things that I kinda wonder about is just how how are we effectively enforce it? Because I know, like, on New Year's Eve, for an example, or when the Seahawks won the, you know, the championship, there were rockets going all over the place.

And part of that problem is, of course, I think people, when they hit their hands on stuff like that, they aren't as trained and they don't maybe use the, you know, good judgment. Right? And in July, it's pretty dry around here. I have fields, and I personally don't miss not having to worry about a field burning up or my house burning up. I would be, like, way more interested in you talk about celebrating as a community.

I would be way more interested if we could try to figure out to do actually a community celebration and a community display. I think that that would speak much stronger about the fourth of July and the nation rather than individual families lighting off fireworks. And and although they will buy same fireworks, I'll guarantee you that if you remove the ban or don't take it as you know, maybe be a little bit more discerning, have to figure this out a little better, the the reservation is to a bang up business around here. Right? So maybe some other options we would have is maybe you say, hey.

Go to this area, and, you know, you can light off you can celebrate there. You know? And that way then it's centralized. Because I gotta believe I don't know. What do we got? Two police officers on duty typically at night here? I don't know how many firemen we've got, but it's probably a pretty busy night. You know? Just in general for all kinds of reasons other than just firework. So at any rate, I guess I'm at this point, I'm a little more I'm more interested in maintaining the band, but trying to see a way to maybe have a professional display and figuring out how we would fund it.

You know? It's like I I think I mean, Puyallup does it. You know? There are a number of cities that do professional displays. It seems like that would be Federal Way does a really big one. And a lot of people attend, and it seems like that would be a really good way to celebrate the fourth of July.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Fred. And next up, Melanie Albert. Okay. Melanie's good to go. Okay. That concludes our people that signed up. You don't have to have signed up. We take people beyond the sign ups, and I see someone in the audience raising their hands. So if you would like to be the first person who didn't sign up but has a right to speak, so step right up.

Good evening, counsel. I'm Lucy Lowry. I've been in Edgewood over fifty years. I was here when you banned the fireworks, and I'm here again to encourage you to keep that. I gave sent an email. I hope all of you got it. I sent it through Jill. I emphasized this time the environmental impact of fireworks. Council member Jenny, I think you have a hobby farm, and I think you emphasize clean products as well. I think environmental friendliness is something that's on your radar. Council member Jason Ramirez, I've heard you get up and talk to the council before.

Hang on, Louis. Lucy, member audio or the council as a whole. Let's

not Okay. I

council members talked before they were council members about the amount of, particulates in the environment, the amount of minerals in the environment from pollution. And I won't talk about some of the council that have chickens and what falls into the chicken coop from fireworks. We've had before the van, we had the Edgemont Track down here. I don't know if chief Youngman has been aware of that, but there were two very large areas of the Edgemont Track that were burned in 2004, I believe, before the ban took effect. So I am talking mainly in China has started to ban fireworks because of the the the research they've done in the Yancey River.

And I've been on the Yancey River, and it's loaded with stuff that is into the fireworks. London has banned fireworks because of what's gone into the Thames. Huge number of articles have come from fireworks. I'm very, very concerned about the future. Now fifty years ago, I celebrated the two hundred year celebration of The United States Of America, and I went to Commencement Bay.

And it was wonderful being with people. We, the people, celebrating together, which I think is part of it, just drinking beer in your backyard and lighting stuff off. Council member we also have a council member who may be on the board of the water company, Edgewood Water Company, may not be on the board at this time. But the Edgewood Water Company is very concerned about keeping the excellent water that we have in Edgewood, And I would think that that council member I'm trying to be really careful here.

You're doing great.

I would hope that that council member would also think about the quality of our water. We're talking about into the future. The future of our planet is yeah. It it's fact. It's not opinion. It's not feelings. I've had animals. I had a goat who fell down a ravine July 4, and I had to go down that damn ravine and try to get him out of it after the fireworks were over with. I ride horses. I won't ride around fourth of July or New Year's.

It's just too dangerous. So I encourage you to keep the ban on. Milton voted against legalizing fireworks. I too have been very hopeful that Edgewood and Milton and other cities might have some kind of a display together where we can get together and and celebrate things. If you go up to Seattle, fireworks are now becoming what are those things that fly around? Drones. Fireworks are now drones, and you see that at the Olympics now. So thank you, and I encourage you to keep it going. Thank you.

Thank you, Lucy. I'm going to go to someone who raised their hand online in the virtual audience, Greg Lingang gang. I believe he's being taken off mute now. And, Greg, you've got, up to five minutes, and please share where your city where do you live?

Yeah. My name is Greg. Name is Greg Leingang. I am a resident of Edgewood. I moved into Edgewood from Portland, Oregon in, 2003, and I am for the band.

I I see that the fireworks lobby is well attending your meeting in person today, and I hope you can the council will aggregate all of those individual speakers into one vote. Because I think that if you did that, you would probably find that most of your residents who are not in the fireworks business are going to support the ban. At this time, you know, I have some questions about all the other work that needs to be done in Edgewood that why this has become important. So my question to the council mem the named council members who were, who have brought this up, I'm just curious as to, why this has become an issue. There's been some the people that have been speaking, they've been making a distinction between safe and sane fireworks and the tribal fireworks.

The law, the ban, bans all fireworks, and it's not going to yeah. Right now, we still have a problem with if we would enforce the law, the ban that is in place by writing some tickets. Just go down the street and start writing tickets, and you'll see this the you'll see the fireworks stop pretty damn quickly. But right now, we this is a fireworks ban. And, yes, there is a distinction between safe and sane fireworks and tribal fireworks.

All fireworks are being used in Edwood. We are close enough to the tribes that people aren't going to buy the safe and sane fireworks. They're gonna go down to the tribe. They're gonna pay the money, and they're gonna buy the big stuff. And it's the big stuff that is being shot over over my head into my yard onto my dry fields.

And you do not have a constitutional right to shoot a firework onto my property. And there's other ways to celebrate on the July 4. You know, the problem is what we're doing in Edgewood, and we we mix fireworks later and later into the evening with alcohol, and that's when it gets crazy. So just also think about July 5. You drive around July 5, and what do you see?

First thing you do is you go out and you smell you you know, you smell the fireworks. You see the haze, and then you see all the trash and the garbage. I think, please, keep the ban in place for the safety fire danger, lessen the trash, lessen the noise, lessen the pollution. And I I would, urge the council to listen to the citizens, rather than the fireworks lobby. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Greg. I also see Tom Green in the virtual audience, so we will take Tom off mute and allow him to speak. So hello, Tom. You have five minutes.

Hello. Hopefully, you can hear me okay. I had a engagement tonight to go to. I wanna speak in favor of repealing the ban. I was there, back at the same time when when it was implemented, and there's a lot of the same conversation back and forth.

I've been part of this community now for the past fifteen years, not as a fireworks, business owner, but just as a business owner that has a a lot of patrons, a lot of people come through. And so I hear from a lot of people on on their ideas in life and the different ways this community is run and stuff. And I believe that this actually should have gotten a vote to the people. I said it at the last meeting, but I also felt like the council members that were voting for the ban at the time were voting from their own hearts and not from their constituents. And this is too big of an issue.

There's too much argument both left and right on this, and I really feel like it should've went to a ballot in the first place. So I'm in support of removing this and and letting the letting the people have a choice in the future if you wanna put a ban back on. That's all.

Okay. Thank you, Tom. So we'll bounce it back to we have a member of the audience here who would like to step forward.

Good evening, counsel. I'm Melinda Rossi. And while I'm not as prepared as my daughter, I did just want to jump in as a citizen of Edgewood and say that we've lived here for five, going on six years. And the first four years we lived here, our whole neighborhood came out together, lighting off fireworks, and had a great time. And in last year, all of the conversation was, oh my gosh, did you hear that they banned fireworks, you know, and young families.

And so just the the sadness that our children felt of like, ugh. And we've lived in California prior to this, and fourth of July was so sad down there because we were like, what are we gonna do? Like, we can still have a barbecue, but they missed the fireworks. And so for us, living here, raising our family, and knowing that my neighbors next door to me, my neighbors across the street, they all really would like the ban to be repealed. And I'll encourage them to write emails because you said only a few have come in that are in favor of repealing the ban.

So I'll do some campaigning, but, just wanted to go on the record as another citizen and a mother in the community. We have a hose out there. We've got buckets ready that we dump the fireworks in as soon as we're done. We do care about safety, and we know how to be wise, and we would love to raise our children in those you know, to do the same, to be respectful. The next day, we're out there with shop vacs. The kids aren't part of it. We gotta clean up the mess that we made, you know? And so all of it teaches both freedom, respect, honoring your neighbors. We do care, and we also wanna be able to celebrate and maintain a tradition that's been meaningful to our family for a lot of years. So thank you for the time, and thank you for considering this. I appreciate it.

Thank you. Okay. Anyone yes. I see a hand over there, and I see a hand there. So she'll go first, and then you're next. Women first. Yes. Name and

Hi. My name is Camilla Nisko. I'm here with my family. Actually, we've been residents of the city of Edgewood for over a decade now. And last year, I was actually I lived in Japan, so I wasn't here for the firework ban, but I heard plenty of text messages from all my family. We usually have our extended family come over because fireworks were banned in all their cities. So for the longest time, this had been a place where our family would always get together and light them. And I will speak as a citizen of Edgewood when I say that when I was growing up, my parents always told me it's fourth of July. You wanna go light up fireworks? Close toed shoes.

Put some long pants on. Have some have an adult up there. So I will say that as for safety, a lot of it is just with the proper role models and with your parents and with your older siblings looking out for you. I had my older siblings showing me how to safely light off fireworks. And whenever we finished at the end of the night, everyone brings all of their cars. We turn on the headlights on, and we get our leaf blowers out and our rakes, and we clean it right up. And then the day after that, I learned from my parents at least. I said, you go back out there and you clean it up again. Make sure you get everything. There was one really bad year with shrapnel, and my mom told me, she said, go out into the neighbor's yard and apologize and pick up everything from their lawn, and that's what we did.

So there is, you know, something to say about being able to teach that responsibility to your kids and to your neighbors and being a member of community that way. So I know it was something that was very, very dearly missed within our family at least. So I'm kind of hoping that we can be able to repeal the ban for the next July 4. So thank you.

Okay. Thank you. And then this gentleman here.

Hi. My name is Chris Wiley. I wasn't planning on speaking tonight, but I felt like it was kinda needed because I heard some things that just didn't really make sense. I've lived in Edgewood since 2021. I'm recently, moving out of Edgewood.

And it was 2021 I was able to finally meet a great group of guys, FireFireFireworks. And, mind you, I grew up born and raised in Yakima, Washington till I was roughly 17 years old, I moved over to the greater Seattle area. I remember back when I was a kid, I used to be able to blow stuff up with fireworks. Over the years, things have gotten a lot more stringent and regulated by what you can get unless you go to the Indian, reservations and and get those fireworks. I also used to have four Pomeranians and two Chow Chows.

None of my Pomeranians liked fireworks that would cause them to go into a shaking and breathing really fast that could puts the puts them at risk of having a heart attack. And you have to drug your dogs in order to make sure that an animal that doesn't like fireworks is able to survive through the fireworks. And I compare that to if your kid gets sick, do you tell the school they have to ban all sick kids from coming to school? Well, how's that gonna work out? You take your kid and you get a medicine.

It's part of life. You have animals or pets that unfortunately don't like fireworks. Well, nobody else has to pay the price of you being a pet owner owning those kind of pets. There's medication for that. It's affordable.

You have pets. Part of that. Banning fireworks that people can get elsewhere, just doesn't make any sense. And on top of that, you're taking a lot of the fun that a lot of people have on given days to enjoy that that time and and do it how they want. Instead, we're we're being controlled by not being able to do things that even the state would allow, and you guys are crimping down more on that instead of just going by state regulations. So I am for repealing the band, and I hope that that's what happens. Thank you for your time.

I'm sorry. I didn't get your name.

Chris Wiley.

Last name. Wiley.

W I l e y.

Okay. And we have a gentleman in the back who like to step forward and take his time.

Ryan Pazriewski. I've been on the hill for forty two years. Learned a

lot today about fireworks.

I thought I knew it all, but I guess I didn't appreciate that. But I don't think we're here to talk about fireworks today. Think we're here more to talk about what the council tried to slip through at. I'd like to take a moment to address a deeper issue that concerned me that has concerned me about this city for a long time. I encourage anyone who has not done so review the council meeting from March 3 as it highlights many of the points I'm about to raise.

I wanna remind everyone of the fund foundational purpose of this city. I was here during the cityhood campaign, and the message at the time was clear. This city was created for one primary reason, to prevent sewer expansion and the associated assessments on Edgewood residents. Sewer. Sewer.

That was the promise. Remarks made during the March 3 council meeting suggest that some current council members may not fully understand that original mission or their responsibility to the community. One councilman expressed frustration with what he described as the city's glacial pace in decision making. I would I would argue that delivers that that deliberate pace is not a flaw. It is exactly what the city was intended to provide.

Slowing or preventing infrastructure expansion, particularly sewers, was the central goal because such expansion directly enables growth and development. Having lived here before and after cityhood was established, I can say that I have not seen meaningful improvements that benefit the community. Instead, I've watched farms disappear to be replaced by large scale developments often without adequate infrastructure to support them. I also wanna address comments by a particular councilman suggesting that this community is not engaged, and that is and it is too difficult to engage residents. Obviously, there's a big group here tonight.

It doesn't seem that difficult. The the reality is that many residents feel disengaged because they do not see the city as adding value. When council seats go uncontested, this is not a sign of strong support. This reflects a lack of confidence or interest. I will remind most of you, no one from this freshman council had a single competitor, which means none of you have a mandate for broad action.

If anything, it reinforces a very narrow responsibility to uphold the original purpose of the city, particularly regarding limiting sewer expansion and growth. If the council no longer intends to honor that purpose, then it may be time to consider a more fundamental question, whether this city should continue to exist in its current form. Perhaps it would be more appropriate for the hill to incorporate into neighboring cities that have the infrastructure, commercial revenue, and capacity to properly support these communities, something that arguably should have been done in 1996. Puyallup, fireworks are allowed on the fourth from 9AM to 11PM. Sumner, fireworks are allowed on the fourth from 12PM to 12AM, and melt in their band.

Thanks.

Okay. Thank you. Do we have any I see a lady and a gentleman and then a gentleman. Lady and the gentleman? Lady in the back and then a gentleman over here. So no. The the the lady in the back.

Yeah. Don't call me late for dinner.

Yeah.

Okay. So I didn't prepare anything. I'm not prepared, but I do have thoughts on the topic of works. Melissa Hollenbeck, resident of Edgewood, over forty some years. I don't want to go there. I don't know how old I was when I lived here the first time or the second, but I've been here in several different decades of my life. And the thing that scares me the most and the only thing that scares me, I'm cool with the safe fireworks. I like fireworks. I like to watch fireworks. I like to go watch fireworks. I like the drone show. I thought that was amazing. That's a pollution free significant event. It would be awesome to have something like that for the community all in one place. That'd be cool.

My only concern with fireworks in general, not just here, in the whole state as far as I'm concerned, is that how quickly something can get out of control. I have a campsite out in Shelton and we had a fire in our park in one of the sites, and it burned two lots side by side and we were blessed it didn't go any further. But it happened like that and it was an electrical issue. So it can happen from almost anything, but we're getting drier and drier, not that you'd know it right now, but we're getting drier and drier in the summertimes and it seems like that should be our top concern with fireworks in general. That's where I'm at.

I love fireworks. I got nothing I've had a friend that blew her face off with an illegal firework, so I'm not maybe in favor of that, but I just think we need to think about air pollution, fire hazard. That would be the two top things on my mind. You know, I love celebrating, you know, and I've it doesn't matter whether we have a ban or not. Right over the hill from my house, they're going off every weekend. I swear I hear them every weekend. I gave up on trying to call on them, you know, like, what's the point? It happens anyway. So it's going to happen anyway. That will happen.

So how you enforce it you know, in your decision on what you want to do, but fire would be my have the fire chief, fire marshal, whoever, get them out here and let's talk to them and find out what their thoughts are. How busy are they? You know, is that going to impact them to have more fireworks going off? Are neighborhoods more impacted? Is it possible that a stray thing is going to hit my house and burn it down? I mean, that's what I worry about. Fireworks themselves don't really bother me if they're the little teeny ones for the kids that you put on the ground and they do a little fountain, and those are good. So that's all I gotta say.

Thank you. Melissa?

Would van?

You know, I I'm not gonna go there exactly because I think that you can come up with a solution that will accommodate the general idea of what we wanna do, which is fire safety, in my opinion. I don't really wanna say ban or or don't ban, really, because I think there can be a solution that comprises everything. Drone show would be awesome. We could come up with funding for that. I don't know. Get a Trader Joe's up here and get the tax revenue from them. Find a way. Okay.

Thank you, Melissa. We had a gentleman in the back who would like to use his five minutes. Looks like Pyro Berry.

Or do you

do you have an official name and where what city?

Model. Yes. So I work for a company called Pyro Land Fireworks. I was hoping the owners would make it tonight. They actually did not make it. I'm gonna kinda speak on their behalf. So

And your city?

Is based out of Buckley, Washington. I live in Federal Way.

You live in Federal Way. Okay.

Thank you. Actually I went to Fife High School growing up around this area my whole life. So but as for PyroLand, we are a local importer, wholesaler, retailer, and a display company. So we actually are one of the companies that actually we do sell fireworks to Firefly fireworks, so them buying from us supports our company. So bans within cities really hurt our company. This is what we do. We make our livelihood selling fireworks. The owner of the company, actually, he has created his own line, his own brand. He he's been to China. He he actually works with technicians.

He makes his own and designs his own fireworks and then imports them. They're all state legal fireworks. We don't sell rockets, bottle rockets, firecrackers, any of that stuff. It's all state legal product that he designs and imports under his own brand. So as cities continue to ban fireworks, it's really affects, you know, their livelihood.

And working with them, it affects my my livelihood, affects fireflies' livelihood. So, yes, fireworks are not for everybody. We lived our lives, you know, banning everything that offended somebody or triggered somebody, or we literally would live in boxes and not do anything. So we actually support making sure that, you know, people are doing them safely. We pass out flyers out of our tent that we have down in Sumner of how to discharge fireworks safely, legally.

And and then we you know, as an importer, we're importing over a million dollars of product a year that we're paying taxes on, currently paying tariffs on. So lot of money is going back into communities with Edgewood, Sumner, Puyallup. We sell to all the local tribes. We sell to all the local stands in Puyallup and, like, all throughout. We actually sell throughout The United States now.

As a display company, we've done fireworks on some of the biggest stages. We actually, in September, did a big show in Missouri on a for a fireworks competition called Sky Wars, which is the biggest fireworks display that you can go to in The United States. It's an invitational. We got invited to come shoot a display there. But so I'm just to me, it's I'm as the company, we are about repealing the ban because, again, it affects our livelihood and what we do and what we've built, the brand that we've built, and the company that we've built over the last fifteen, sixteen years, I think it is now.

So for me, it's just it's, again, it's about Citi's banning it, and it's it's starting to hurt our hurt our business and what we do. So

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes. We have another audience member there. Angelina.

My name is Angelina Koenig. I'm a resident of Auburn just up the hill, but I have the beautiful privilege of working here in the city of Edgewood. So I just wanna say that two weeks ago, I came here and spoke as the executive director of Mountain View Community Center, who has been supported greatly by the city council here and residents of Edgewood, Bife Milton, and the surrounding communities. What I find fascinating from two weeks ago to today is the amount of people people who showed up to talk about fireworks and the impact it has on our city, the impact it has on their livelihoods, the impact it has on anything under the sun. But what I really wanna say, just as a person who works here in the city of Edgewood and appreciates the city and appreciates all of you, don't just come to these, city council meetings where it's your livelihood on the line because the livelihood of all of the residents, in relation to the economy, in relation to safety, and everything depends on you being here every single time the city council meets paying to paying attention to everything that is on the agenda.

So for me, I have the what I will say for a fireworks ban, I wanna agree with Melissa back here. Guess, I you're still here. Great. If not, sorry. But agree with her. There's a solution that can be had for coming up with something that would really benefit all parties in the city of Edgewood for fireworks or not fireworks. Something can be done. A solution can be done. So my thing is get people together, come up with a better solution than yes for fireworks or no for fireworks. And all of you, please keep coming because your voice matters in this city, and your voice matters for the Mountain View Community Center and every single resident that lives here. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Any yes. I see Roseanne Tommon there if she'd like to

So Roseanne Tommon. I lived in Edgewood for eighteen years. So I just wanna say love fireworks myself. My kids love doing the little fountains, the smoke bombs. That's always been our tradition. Last year, we didn't do them because it it was illegal, and we honored that. So I don't have a dog in this fight personally. But one thing that hasn't been mentioned that I really wanted to call out is that this has come up many times over the years. And I agree with one of the commenters, mister Green. You know, folks that come up and say everyone's for this or everyone's against this are both wrong.

50%, 50%. We could look at the advisory vote in Milton, 60% against fireworks, fifth 40% for. You can maybe assume there's some overlap here. You don't know for sure unless you go to an advisory vote. But anyone that's telling you freedom means this or doesn't mean this is taking nuance out of every person's lived experience. And another missed item that came up in the in the previous litigation of this topic is house fires. We have lost homes in the city of Edgewood. We, in

fact, had a

comment previously. It was just one house at the time. And I'm sorry, you know, but one house, when you are a legislator and you have to take your personal feelings about loving these little smoke bombs again, I love the flipping smoke bomb. But have to take your personal feelings out of it in the same way you've been asked to do that in the probe. Right?

And you have to look at what what is safe for your citizens. What are you being asked to do? And it's 5050, and you have to look at the data and you have to listen to the police chief. Last, I believe the year before, whatever year, I can't keep track of dates. The plea the fire chief that came in after our first year was asked the question, alright. What was this year? What was this year like? And he said, you know, it was quieter, less calls, and was asked so just to clarify, we had two house fires in the city of Edgewood over the past few years. Right? And he said, no.

Three. So that is an important metric that I think has to be considered. Again, don't have a dog in this fight. Super glad I'm not having to litigate this and make any decisions. But I appreciate also, I wanna call out and appreciate council member Pazaruski in in really advocating for an opportunity for the community to engage and share, and that includes the business community. That includes the the resident community. But I also agree that you really have to listen to the people who have voted for you to represent them. The business community matters. It's valid. I've shopped with you guys.

Love it. But there's a lot to consider here. It's not black and white. I would argue an advisory vote is fantastic and gets you all off the hook for no matter what you do, no matter what you do, you're going to be in trouble. And this is a pendulum swing from one extreme to another. So you're asking, okay. All right. Well, we want to go from a band back to another extreme. Well, actually to a further extreme. Is that right?

All because you have to wait a year? Could you take that year and really look at what the actual what the actual answer is? Could it be something in the middle? Do you have to knee jerk? So I would just encourage a lot more thoughtful discussion in this process and continue to engage the community because I really don't think one extreme to another is the way to go. But with the data that was presented at the time, that vote made sense because we had houses. People people could not live in their homes. So thank you.

K. Thank you, Roseanne. How are we doing? Anybody oh, there we go. Sunny? Good. How are you?

And here?

Better?

Yeah. There you go.

Talk a little louder, though. But, yeah, resident for thirty seven years. I prefer to unban and have what we had in the past, of a combination of banning certain products, certain sales, and then using the fire marshal's scientific method to ban fireworks if it's a dry season. And that was perfect mix sort for all the residents. That's all I have.

K. Thank you, Sunny. Gentleman in the back there and then the younger gentleman in the front there.

Do I

have to turn this on?

I think it's on.

My name is Chris Nisko. I moved here about fourteen years ago. We came from Federal Way. We dreamed of living in Edgewood for many years. We lived in South Hill, Puyallup after I was in the air force in the active duty, moved from Texas. I grew up in in Berrien and Federal Way. Always wanted to come back, have a huge family here. Very important to us to be here and raise our kids. I've raised six kids here in this community, and we love Edgewood. Love it.

We chose Edgewood because it just had something to it that was better than Federal Way, better than South Hill. It was the ruralness of it, the kind of the freedom of it, the ability to build our own home and raise our kids here, and we absolutely love it. We like the schools here, and we're happy to be residents here. I'm coming out definitely in favor of getting rid of the ban of fireworks. That was another reason we moved here, by the way. It was to be able to have a celebration on fourth of July where we could actually light fireworks like we did when we were kids. We have a huge family gathering. Our whole family comes here to our big cul de sac, and we have a great time. We have barbecue and play volleyball in our yard, and and fireworks was a a good part of that. We're always safe with it.

We watch our kids. We're out there with the water and making sure everyone's doing it right. And I do agree with the earlier gentleman said that I think this thing was too big for the council just to decide that on their own for everyone. I think that should have been put to the people. And I would I would I beg to differ.

I don't think necessarily the community would be more in favor of banning them than not. So I would like to see that maybe happen. In the meantime, I'd like to see the ban be reversed, go back to the way it was, allow us to do our thing. And if you go on to put it to a vote, or like the last lady just said, I thought she spoke very eloquently that you should research it more, maybe have a more nuanced approach to it to make it, you know, actually safe, while also maintaining people's ability to have a good time on the July 4 and uphold the traditions that we've had in this country for a couple hundred years. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. And then the younger gentleman there in the front.

Yeah. Hopefully, it'd be the last Nisko you have to hear from. So you heard from my dad and my sister earlier. I've lived in Edinburgh for about eleven, twelve years. I'm currently senior at Peel High School.

And something I've heard mentioned a lot during this public hearing is just kinda the idea of community. And, I mean, to me, personally, a big component of community is the the trust between the people and their government. And I don't know just for me personally, but I think the ordinance coming that was announced a few years back, it kinda came suddenly. And because of that, it seemed to demonstrate a lack of of trust between the people and the the local government. I think a big issue here between the use of fireworks is personal responsibility.

And I think the full ban of fireworks within Edgewood demonstrates that the government has a lack of trust for people to to learn about and practice fireworks safely. And I definitely agree on there are definitely years where it can be more dangerous and more safe to launch fireworks depending on the dryness of the grass or just surrounding weather of fourth of July. But I think the the best way to lower the dangers of fireworks in Edgewood is to just educate the population on how to practice them safely and and and trust them to just be safe around fourth of July and other events where they use fireworks.

Thank you.

Thank you. June Nisco.

K. Thank you. Anybody else? Gentleman in the back While you're walking up there, name and where do you live, and you got five minutes.

Howdy. My name is Lionel Siva. I'm a resident of Milton. 32 of life. I've never been to a tunnel meeting. This is a I felt appropriate to at least come engage after the missus did speak about being more involved with your community. Definitely tugged on my heart to come up here. Know, we have a band there. And a couple years ago, I fell in love with fireworks, met some amazing people like Barry. And I think about things like enforcement reality. I have plenty of family in Hawaii and California. And when things are banned, they typically get pushed underground. And it's really bad there. Really, really bad. And it takes away, like the gentlemen were saying, from local local businesses.

Forgive me. I'm very nervous.

Right. You you yeah. You've been great.

I think about safety through regulation. Legal, regulated is probably a lot more preferred than illegal and unregulated. Whoo. Resource allocation as far as police and fire. A lot of cities, I don't think forgive me.

I don't wanna speak on behalf of Edgewood PD, but you kinda think about how much of it can they actually enforce. And I grew up I would have deep love for police and fire. And some I don't like when they are put in a tough situation when they can enforce something because then it feels like a lose lose for the men in blue and red. So it's it's hard to regulate it when everybody's doing it. And then you get calls, and then they get looked at like they're not doing their job on something that's very hard to regulate.

I think it'll be a lot more appropriate to have something legal that's regulated that the police can enforce, and it's not so harsh on their jobs. And just local companies. I'm the I don't own a business or anything. I just love fireworks, and I sit in the back. Never been to a town hall meeting all my life. Parents never never knew this was a real thing. I always heard of it. Just felt compelled to come and speak on behalf of something that I'm passionate about. And I do want to show, some grace to those who do face issues through fireworks. My heart goes out to them because I I can hear the frustration.

I'm not so naive to think, like, these don't affect people's personal lives. I totally understand that, and which is why I'm still on favor. I I am in favor of repealing the ban, but I'm very much in favor of finding some middle ground where local companies can still operate, local Americans can still celebrate their freedom, and people can feel safe with the July 4, especially with two hundred and fifty years coming around. There's a lot of pride involved. I didn't grow up with a lot of pride. I wasn't really out to be an American. It's something I fell in love with as I got older, but I just felt like it was my duty. I couldn't sit at the back and not come up and speak, especially with this being my first time. It didn't even feel so nervous. That's all I had to say. But, yes, thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Any other comments? I don't see any hands raised on line. Okay. One final comment I'll make before I close the public hearing. I just want to address a couple of people made a comment about, like, an advisory vote. Just to clarify, when when some council members brought this item before the council, it was kind of you have to kinda hop on a Pierce County election, and there's always a Pierce County election in November. It's usually one in August for the primary. And then it's usually February or April when the school districts or fire districts do one.

That's kinda convenient to hop on board one of those ballots and go out, but we were kinda too late for anything. And I'm not aware that there's anything going out in June. So we explored and asked the question of whether or not we had time to fit on a ballot, and it was kind of concluded. We don't really have time to do an advisory ballot to still get this decided before the February on July 4. So it was explored, the option of going with an advisory vote.

Thought it was about $20,000 too. So there was the the is that worth $20,000 plus? I don't even know if we can get on a ballot at this time anyway. So we proceeded, but I think we accomplished a great goal. We got a lot of people here speaking on it, and 21 emails came came came in. So I think we accomplished our goal of getting some feedback from the community, and that's, in my mind, almost as good as an advisory vote. That's the purpose of an advisory vote. So, anyway, with all that said, we will close our public hearing at eight to twenty eight. K. Where does that take us to next?

Well, that takes us to audience comments. So I'll we'll we'll give a minute for some people. So, again, we have Curtis Chambers here. Curtis, did you hear my the the earlier motion to suspend counsel rules of procedure? I kinda did both one and the same. Are we are we good?

I did. Minutes. Yeah. My understanding was it was going to be for both.

Okay. Good. Thank you. Glad you didn't disapprove of that. So alright. We'll let things kinda settle down here a little bit, but we're gonna move on to what I would call our regular audience comment portion. So this is for items on or off tonight's agenda. So as you know from what we said earlier, you have five minutes to speak on something, and we do have a couple of people that have signed up. And I'll start with those people. Roseanne Tomm, and it's first on the list. And Roseanne said her topic of discussion is the community center. So, Roseanne, you got your five minutes. Go for it.

So Roseanne Tommen, I live in city of Edgewood. Again, I just wanted to come up today to echo deputy mayor Creeley's request to move the Mountain View Community Center partnership contract that was on the agenda for the council retreat to a study session as I feel that that is a packet worthy topic. And I think that there's more opportunity for the community to engage in that setting. So I just wanted to echo, you know, support of of deputy mayor Creeley in that request. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. We also have Angelina Koenig.

My god. Yeah.

It's green now. Good? Alright. So

Yeah.

Angelina Koenig, executive director, Mountain View Community Center. Mayor, council members, fellow neighbors and residents of Edgewood, for those of you that decided to stay, thank you. Thank you for this opportunity to speak with you about the community center and our deeply valued symbiotic partnership with the city of Edgewood. We are profoundly grateful for the city's support through the annual $50,000 grant over the past three years. This collaboration is mutually beneficial and aligned shared goals, supporting our young people, supporting our families, and supporting our seniors, ensuring that every resident has resource and access to those resources that foster growth, connection, and well-being, a resource that no city can provide alone to our residents.

Mountain View Command Community Center fills a vital gap where the city lacks its own dedicated facility. Our 10,000 square foot fully heated and cooled space features two multiuse rooms, a full functioning kitchen, audiovisual capabilities, spacious multiuser restrooms, and ample gathering areas along with ample parking. It serves as a a reliable, safe haven that is ADA compliant, easily accessible with that adequate parking during extreme weather, storms, or prolonged power outages. And God forbid something happens on the July 4 and we need the community center to host people in case of mass fires. Providing immediate shelter, comfort, and support to Edgewood citizens when no comparable city owned option exists.

This partnership builds community resilience and prevents hardship for all. The model is exceptionally cost effective. The city's financial support enables these essential services at a fraction of the likely 1,000,000 plus cost for the city to build, remodel, or acquire and equip a similar facility. In return, and in deep appreciation for this shared commitment, we deliver meaningful impact. I shared the numbers last week.

Briefly share again, over 1,900 nutritious senior lunches served annually. Ninety seven percent of surveyed seniors reported an increased sense of belonging and community. More than 200 free senior classes where 100% of tested participants maintained or improved strength, and mobility. Thousands of community meals, over 5,000 community meals for everyone, no matter who they were or where they come from, over 5,000 through programs like our seeds of change dinners, plus hundreds of backpacks and food assistance packages for children and family, Regular free movie Fridays offering families with young children a safe, warm, comfortable community environment to enjoy movies together, often in partnership with the city, strengthening family bonds and creating joyful shared experiences just like the fireworks want to do. These efforts directly advance our mutual goals, making Edgewood a stronger, more resilient, and inclusive community.

We truly, truly are immensely thankful for this partnership and believe that continuing and even strengthening it provides the best value to the taxpayers while meeting real ongoing community needs. And truly, in agreement with Deputy Mark Creeley up there and also echoing what Roseanne Tommen said, this truly is an item that should be in a study session where community members can come and vote or share their experience and more information can be shared on the vital importance that the community center plays in Edgewood, as well as this great relationship that we have. So thank you for your time and your commitment, and I'd be happy to answer any questions at any time. Thank you.

Thank you, Angelina. Yes. Lucy Lowry. No. Lucy Lowry.

Lucy Lowry. I'm Lucy Lowry. I've been in Edgewood over, I think, fifty one years now, maybe fifty two. I just want to provide an observation. I'm very sad the rest of the people left. You know, there's more that goes on here than what goes up and blows up. So that's, we gotta keep working on getting the word out and getting citizens involved. I'm also on the board of the community center, and I'm not here to speak over, Angelina, but the I plan to sit in on your retreat you have. I will do that by Zoom. I mostly sit in on Zoom now because I can't drive at night.

Gonna be difficult getting home. Don't watch me. Anyway, it's nice to be here, and I'm glad you're looking pretty good there, mister mayor. Thank you.

Any other audience comment? Yes.

Are you a Cheetah? I'm a I'm an Edgewood resident. I just wanted to express my support for the council's decision to Zoom and record the upcoming strategic retreat, especially given the impending or projected budget shortfalls starting in 2028. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Any other audience comment for tonight? I don't see any hands raised in our virtual audience. I think that concludes tonight's audience comment then. K. It takes us to mayor's report. I just wanna share that I spoke at the Fife Milton Edgewood Chamber of Commerce a week and a half ago for their annual state of the cities. They had all three cities share at the same meeting, so I was joined by BIF mayor Kim Roscoe and Milton mayor Bruce White. It's a good meeting. Also, I had an opportunity to have one of my quarterly, talks with the senior lunch group over at the Mountain View Community Center, so I enjoyed that.

It's always great hanging out with them. Attended a PCRC meeting with council member Ramirez last week, and just wanna say thank you to the staff for covering for me for being out yesterday with my appendix surgery and doing doing well, but I appreciate staff covering for me yesterday and today. But I'll I'll be back to work tomorrow morning. So that concludes my mayor's report. Takes us to our consent agenda at 08:37.

We're finally getting to the consent agenda. So are there any items to be amended or pulled from the consent agenda? K. Seeing none, may I entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented?

I move to approve consent agenda as read.

Is there a second? Creeling. Okay. It has been moved by council member Edwards and seconded by deputy mayor Creelie to approve the consent agenda as presented. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. K. Motion carries. Takes us to council business. Agenda bill 26 dash o seven zero zero. This is an ordinance creating Edgewood Municipal Code chapter 12.09 for special events permitting. Mister Jeremy Metzler is online. Jeremy, would you please brief the council on this special events process that we have?

Sure thing. Thank you, mayor. Good evening, council, members of the public. This is the item that was discussed at last week's study session. No changes. Looking to adopt a new section of code that will provide for a special events process, for events that take place on city owned property or public rights of way. Also touched on the need and or desire to to establish a potential application fee, looking to bring that forward for further conversation with the fee schedule update at the, April 7 study session. But happy to take any questions that you may have this evening.

Okay. Council, we spoke about this at our study session last week. Jeremy, could you provide a little more clarification on what you just said about the fee? The we can still vote and pass and approve the ordinance tonight, but still have a chance to modify that fee later?

That's correct. As, as presented tonight with the draft ordinance, it does not establish a fee, but it refers to the city's fee schedule for the fee, as we are currently discussing the fee schedule and updating that, given we don't have any special events, that are imminent and, the this code, if act done tonight, wouldn't take effect for another week. We felt that was a short enough period of time to have no application fee, and allow the council to have that conversation with the fee schedule update item already being discussed.

Okay. So word to the council don't get hung up on the fee tonight. We'll have a chance to talk about that later. So any questions for, mister Metzler on the special events permitting ordinance? Not seeing any hands raised or any on the virtual audience. So with that, I'll entertain a motion to approve ordinance 26 dash o seven zero zero creating Edgewood Municipal Code chapter 12 o nine for special events permitting. Do I have a motion?

Keith, so moved.

And do I have a second? Edward, second. Okay. It has been moved by council member Keith and seconded by council member Edwards. Council member Keith, you have the floor.

I appreciate all the work staff has done on this item, and look forward to getting the entire package done so that we'll be ready to have events.

Thank you. Now council member Edwards, you have the floor.

Again, thank you to staff. The $500 is kinda crazy, and so that yeah. That's it. Just getting it so it's more affordable for a special permit, I think, would be good.

Any further council comments? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye.

Aye. Any

opposed say nay. K. Motion carries. Thank you, Jeremy. Next up, we have agenda bill 26 dash o seven zero one. This is an ordinance regarding the first reading franchise agreement for Ziply Fiber. So this is a first of two required franchise agreement readings. Mister Chuck Hendrickson, is online. Chuck, would you please brief the council on this item?

Yes. Thank you, mayor. Good evening, council members of the public. It's not the most exciting thing is everything for this, but just a standard, franchise agreement for a franchise utility to use the city's right away. And, we talked about the city session, and I'd be happy to answer any questions that may have came up.

Okay. Any questions for mister Hendrickson? Okay. I saw Ramirez, then Pazaruski, and then Keith. So we'll start with council member Ramirez. So, Chuck,

I had a list of questions. Ziply subcontractors have been, a little spotty. Sammamish, Washington suspended Ziply's right away permits. Leconner was going down the same path. Kaiser, Oregon, Bellingham, Albany, Oregon had stopped work orders all in 2025.

Is this normal for a company to have a lot of suspended right away permits. Some of the complaints were property damage, particularly cutting of tree roots in the right away, which would kill a tree, which could be significant. So I had some questions on who in the city will be regularly monitoring this work as described in section six d, g, and h. Under section eight, what is reasonable amount of time defined as when referring to restoration? And when will the work or will this work affect slope stability considering we currently have slides on Meridian, Crissula Road, and Sumner Heights Drive.

If so, how will those slopes be mitigated?

Okay.

I I've also seen seen the news in Sammamish and and other places. That it mostly had to do with the timeliness of the restoration of the right of way. And you asked who would be monitoring that. Jamie Ward, the senior engineer for the city of Edgewood, will be issuing those right of way permits and inspecting them. We've had long conversations about, how many we're gonna issue and how many we're gonna allow to be going.

Typically, obviously, this is the second or third one to come through. These companies will hire, like, four prime contractors and try to get as much fiber in the ground as they can. So we're we're looking at it closely. They're they will all have a bond in place. So as far as slope stability goes, critical areas will they'll have to abide by our critical areas ordinances.

So I haven't seen or heard of any trying to go in in in critical slope areas.

Councilmember Ramirez, did he cover all your questions? Are you good?

I guess my my major concern would be damage to private property, and that's been a theme with Ziply. It's also been a theme with what's currently going on in Milton. I've at the county meeting we were at Thursday, there was a Milton representative that talked about those experiences. So I just wanna make sure that we have safeguards and things like that.

Okay. Councilmember Pazaruski, you had some questions for mister Hendrickson?

Yeah. Chuck, my question should be self explanatory, but I didn't I didn't see it laid out in the ordinance. And I don't know if I saw this laid out in our past fiber franchise ordinance. I've been hearing more and more about when work is getting done with some of these fiber franchise companies. And I might have missed it, but I didn't see anything laid out in the ordinance that we have in our packet if they are gonna be abiding by, certain working hours of when they are doing their work.

Yeah. It's not in the ordinance because it's it's codified. So our work hours are codified, so they will abide by those work hours.

And so with it with you saying it's codified, is it is it gonna be varying hours, or is it gonna be abiding by what they have agreed with the city?

Well, the Edgewood municipal code only allows certain hours of work, and so they'll have to follow the those hours of construction work outlining code.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Council member Keith.

Ramirez covered most of my questions. I had one more. So we have this big rush to lay all this fiber. We already have one company that we've signed a French for franchise for. This is the second. We may end up with more. So all of the contracts are the same, and all of their terms are the same. That's my first question. And second question is, are they all they're laying all of their own separate trenches, or are just can they go in the same construction trench?

They're all the same. We have a template that our legal counsel created for these that we use when, a fiber company comes in. Most nothing that I've seen so far has been open trench. They're all directional borings, and they're all that infrastructure is each individual company. There's nothing they're not shared.

Okay. Deputy mayor Creeley has his hand raised.

And just confirm, when they do come in

to do their little projects, they have to get a permit. And so we're aware of where they are and what they're going to be doing in that location. Correct?

Yes. Right away permit will be required. We've had them try to take large swaths of area, and, we've broken that up into several permits with the other franchise the other fiber companies that are here just to have more a closer control over where they're at and, how much work is going on at one time.

Okay. Thank

Yeah. Council member Ramirez.

How do easements, Chuck, play into this?

I don't know. It I mean, I don't understand your question necessarily. This is for use of the right of way.

And So our mapping's pretty good with where things are at. I just think of if one of these bores hits a waterline, then we have to go to Mountain View Edgewood Water. And I know that in the past, there's been pipes that didn't show up on certain things, given that the city is fairly old. So Yeah. I have read that sometimes they they move into someone's yard because of where things are located.

Well I'm just concerned about private property owners waking up one day and having a portion of their driveway.

You know? We'd shut down the job. A matter of fact, they've came in with right away permits showing fiber going up private roads, and we had to take a big red pen and x that off to we can't grant you rights on a private road. This is for the we can grant you rights for the right of way, but you can't I can't let them build on private property.

Okay. Further questions for mister Chuck Hendrickson? Anything? And, again, franchise agreements require two readings, so this is not your last opportunity to think of a question for Chuck. If you have something, you'll have a chance the next time we have the second reading. So but with that, I think our questions for Chuck are done. So thank you, Chuck. Appreciate that. So at this time, I'll entertain a motion to approve the first reading of for the franchise agreement for ZipLeaf Fiber known as agenda bill 26 dash o seven zero one. Do I have a motion?

So moved, Edwards.

Second, Keith.

Okay. It's been moved by council member Edwards and seconded by council member Keith. Council member Edwards, you have the floor.

Just standard business getting through the first reading.

K. Council member Keith, you now have the floor.

Standard business. Thank you.

Any further council comment on this item? K. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. Okay. Motion carries. And that takes us to council comment.

Are there any council comment tonight? Council member Ramirez. Movie night, April 17, 07:00 in Mountain View Community Center, a Minecraft movie. And I actually found some Minecraft snacks to go along with the movie.

Nice. Okay. Deputy mayor Creeley has his hand raised.

Well, this is related to the franchise agreement we just talked about, but I'm sure, hopefully, we've heard about Pacific has suspended what was it? EZ Fiber, their franchise agreement.

Yeah. Algona. Yeah.

Yeah. Has suspended theirs for, you know, hitting, I think, a water a water line and some other things. So that was part of my reason for asking about the permitting too so we know where they're at. And, hopefully, when they're doing that, they're getting their you know, checking for the utilities. But just keep in mind that, like I say, easy fiber has been suspended and outgoing enough for this, so we really need to keep an eye on them. It's, you know, also coming from the water department, I would suppose.

K. Thank you, deputy mayor Creeley, council member Keith.

And with all this talk of suspension, how would that work? Does it have to come back to council to be suspended?

Well, we have Curtis Chambers, our, interim counsel. I I believe the mayor.

Or can we do we need to authorize the mayor to do it on his own without the council?

Suspension of work on the on a

On a contract.

I mean, I think Chuck will be able to speak to this. But, I mean, the permit in the code is gonna give the city authority to stop work for any number of reasons. And so that would just be at the staff level.

Okay. So Chuck Chuck's got this one under control.

Yeah. We we would suspend their right away permit until they remedy whatever it is.

Yes. Okay. Any other council comment? Council member Edwards.

So I was gonna bring up EasyFiber too. So sounds like Chuck has it under control for now, so that sounds good. I just wanna say thank you to the 24 people that spoke tonight about fireworks and 25 total people that spoke tonight. So thank you very much for coming and getting encouraged to come up here and speak. So wanna say thank you to that. And, also, thank you to everyone even if you did not speak for coming tonight.

And looks like deputy mayor Creeley has something else and then council member Southern at the end. So deputy mayor Creeley.

Council member Southern, go ahead. I already spoke once. So

Okay. Council member Southern. Thank you. I wanted to thank, deputy, Schaeffer for doing the, scam class on Thursday. It was very, very insightful, what people will do to, extort money from others. So and, I also wanna echo what you said about everybody showing up. A great person who might be seeing the audience once said that we make decisions here. Sometimes it's in a vacuum because nobody shows up. And I'm paraphrasing, but, that it's nice to have public input on issues so we know we're trying to make the best decision for everyone.

Okay. Now deputy mayor Creeley.

Creeley. Are we working with DOT on the Meridian slide there by the gravel pit? Are we pressuring them to get that taken care of, or do do we know where that is since they're still down to one lane. Right?

Yeah. And that that could be a while. Chuck knows much more about that than I. So what what can you can you enlighten us, Chuck, what you've heard this week?

Not much. They're pretty silent, but our main road maintenance supervisor has been in touch with them. I imagine it's gonna be closed for quite a while. It's gonna be one lane each direction for quite a while. Months.

Okay.

I know for years, all they've done is put more asphalt over the the the hole that's there. So okay.

Thank you. That patch job, plan is is now officially over with. So

Officially did not work.

They'll they'll do a better fix. But, yeah, it's it's gonna be a couple months. Yes. Councilmember of Theodore.

I have a friend or a friend who lives on the hill, and they actually said it's easier for them to get out of their driveway now as a result.

Yeah. So there's there's always a positive. So okay. Well, thank you. I think that will conclude tonight's council meeting at 08:57.

Good night, everybody. Take care.