Council - Special Meeting

you . . . . . . . . . . you Thank you.

I now call the July 1st, 2026 special meeting of the Riverton City Council to order at 6 p.m. We're going to start with the Pledge of Allegiance, which Councilman Bailey has agreed to lead us in. If everyone could please rise and remove hats, and then I will give the invocation.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to

Heavenly Father, we're grateful for the opportunity we have to meet here together as a city council with the citizens of the city of Riverton here present with us. We ask that you please bless us that we can have a productive discussion and we can make decisions that will benefit the city. We thank you so very much for those who serve in many different ways, our firefighters, our police force, our EMS individuals, and also those who serve the city in capacities that, whatever they might be, And we thank thee so very much for their service and ask that you please bless them with safety and with guidance. We thank thee so very much for the opportunity to serve and for those who are willing to discuss with us and hear what we have to say and be able to help us reach the correct decisions. We thank thee very much for all the blessings that we enjoy as citizens of this country. And we say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. All right, Ms. Harris, if you could conduct the roll call.

Yes, Your Honor. Council Member Eric Carr. Here. Council Member Rebecca Brothers. Here. Council Member Mike Bailey. Here. Council Member Carla Borders. Here. Council Member Kyle Larson. Here. Council Member Karen Johnson. Here. Mayor Tim Hancock.

I'm here. I declare we have a quorum. I'd entertain a motion to approve the agenda for what it's worth. So moved.

Second.

Motion by Councilman Larson, second by Councilwoman Borders. Any discussion on the agenda?

All in favor say aye.

Aye. Any opposed say aye. I vote aye, motion passes. We have one agenda item tonight. That agenda item is fireworks restrictions. So let me kind of introduce this a little bit. First off, we had a meeting yesterday at noon. Everybody in the public was invited to that meeting. It was advertised, it was made clear we're gonna talk about fireworks. That being said, Nothing in the advertisement said, hey, we're gonna talk about the possibility of fireworks being over at the ball fields. So probably most of you didn't think, oh, the city's gonna decide, we're gonna say all the people with fireworks wanna go to the ball fields. I get that, and I get that's frustrating, and I really appreciate that you're here to let us know where we might have messed up. We don't mind hearing that. The one thing that I will say though is we have quite a few people here. If I gave all of you five minutes, we're going to be here all night. uh... we've all gotten feedback from a lot of different people not that i think everybody's mind is made up uh... so i would love to hear from you and what we did last time and what i will do again this time is give people a chance to speak and then we will go through and have a motion and we'll see where things end up with the council and we'll have discussion normally we've done five minutes for an individual tonight we're gonna do two so if you can come up here and tell us what you have to say in two minutes Please let us know your thoughts. Try to, you know, collect them before you come up or whatever you need. And then please sit down. As you're listening and here in the audience, try to pay attention to what other people are saying and avoid just repeating the same thing. I'm not trying to be rude with that. I'm just trying to have us use our time as wisely as we can. So I appreciate you're here. I appreciate everybody has things that they have in mind. We want to hear from you. But we also don't want to be here until midnight. So if you'd like to come up, that would be great. If you want to come up with a group, feel free. Introduce the members of your group and let us know what you have to say, and we'll go from there. So at this point, is there anyone in the audience who wishes to speak?

So the majority of these folks right here are all board members from the Riverton Little League.

Perfect.

I'll make it quick in case if they do want to say anything. I absolutely hate speaking in front of everybody, so here we go.

You're doing great so far. Could you start, though, with your name?

I will. Good evening, Mayor and City Council. I'm Elizabeth. I'm the president of Riverton Little League. I understand these aren't easy decisions to make, and serving in the seats that you guys are currently in, it comes with difficult choices. I'd also like to personally thank you, Councilwoman Johnson, for listening and asking for this to be reconsidered. Riverton Little League's biggest concern is protecting our complex. Our volunteers spend countless hours maintaining these fields and we work tirelessly throughout the year to raise the funds needed to improve our facilities. When something is damaged, it's on our organization and that's expected to be repaired or replaced. I know that our professional fireworks show has been mentioned. Yes, it was successful, but there's a big difference between a professionally permitted display and opening the complex for consumer fireworks. Our show was covered by their own liability insurance, approved well in advance, carefully planned and coordinated with many, many people involved. On the 4th of July, or on that day, we also had firefighters on site standing throughout the entirety of the event. On the 4th of July, that level of oversight simply is not realistic. Our community already relies on a limited number of volunteer firefighters, and that day is going to be one of the busiest for them this year. They cannot be expected to be standby at the ball fields. We have batting cages, nets, dugouts, fences, scoreboards, and many other items throughout the complex that could easily become damaged or create fire hazard. Our Little League insurance will not cover a city sponsored public firework area. If damages occurs, I need to know who is responsible for paying for this. If any of those items are damaged, who is responsible? Do we replace them or is this going to be a citywide event and are they going to replace these items? If an incident occurs and somebody is injured on our facilities or they're damaged, Riverton Little League should not be left responsible for the consequences. This is simply not a risk our league should be expected to take. We all want our communities to celebrate Independence Day, especially the 250. We simply ask that our ball fields not be the location for consumer fireworks. I really appreciate you guys' time. Thank you for listening and reconsidering your decision.

Thank you. Appreciate it. And Ms. Coomer, right? Yes. Okay, great. Thank you. And you did very well at keeping it to about two minutes, so I'm setting a timer, and I'll remind you when we get close or right when we get there, okay? Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Amber Franks. I'm the treasurer for Riverton Little League. Thanks for hosting this meeting tonight to hear our concerns. Riverton Little League is a boots on the ground board. As you can see, many of our board members and volunteers, coaches have showed up tonight to express their concerns. As the treasurer, I can verify that we spend thousands of dollars every year maintaining the fields. Last year alone, it was Although the signs were donated, we had to pay for the expense, which was not a small expense to have those boards hung. Some of the small things that are not heard of are the infield dirt, clay, quick dry chalk, and maintenance supplies. As to speak to my family, we are a baseball family. Our child has grown up in the fields since 2019, not missing a single season until the pandemic. My son and my husband, We're often at the fields very late as my husband is the safety officer for our league, wanting to ensure that the fields were always ready for the following day to have safety. So there were often times that I would send a text after 9.30, 10 o'clock, it's time to come home. That just goes to show the level of work that we are committed to serving. However, with the idea of fireworks being presented, It is a huge expense that may result in Riverton Little League. Sorry, I don't speak well. Talk to people all day, but not large crowds. You're doing just fine. We spend a lot of time and money ensuring the well-being of the program. We want to make sure that we've left a footprint as our goal in mind as we have identified together collectively to leave the fields better than we've received it. And having a risk like an event like this would not honor our goals in doing so. We appreciate that this was a proposed idea. I do not feel that it aligns with a memorandum of understanding. And I understand it was a quick decision, but I don't support it for the safety of the children there, potential damage to the fields. And as I had mentioned before, the costs alone. With that, I'll just leave it there. Not to mention, I'll speak on behalf of my husband who had also mentioned, we're not done for the season. We still have all stars. Our kids need the fields. And so the risk of the fireworks damaging the fields, where would we play? So I'd like that to be considered as well.

Thank you, Mrs. Franks, I guess.

My name is Matthew Apodaca. I'm the coaching coordinator for Little League. And just to add on what Amber says, our all-star team is preparing right now to go represent Riverton in Pinedale. So they need that field ready to go. And then we're not just worried about fires and stuff, too. There was a lot of vandalism in between the seasons last year that had to be fixed, holes in the dugout, stuff like that. So we're also worried about that.

Thank you, Mr. Apodaca. Coach Apodaca, I should say. Anyone else? No ballpark grandmas want to speak?

You bet I do. My name is Diana Green, and I am a ballpark grandma. And this is some of the kids, three, my three grandkids. A lot of years gone into this. You all know that I'm Elizabeth's mother, right? What I do ask, understanding, and I'm also the most patriot one around.

Maybe we'll attest to that.

Right? Is that if you do decide to do this and allow it, we need help cleaning up. I'm a volunteer. I love it. Maybe let's set an example. The other example is sometimes it's hard to say no. We know. But we need to show our kids that sometimes we need to say no. I, myself personally, would prefer to go safety over having some fun. Thank you.

Okay, thanks, Ms. Green. Anyone else? I'm just going to assume everybody else agrees with everything that was said. Is that a good assumption? All right, so by standing here and not speaking, you're saying we completely agree with Ms. Coomer, Ms. Franks, Mr. Apodaca, and Ms. Green, other than you don't have grandkids, all of you. Okay. Okay.

I would like to say one thing.

Go for it.

My name's Mike Gallagher. I'm a coach. I know it was kind of posted that the Little League had fireworks, and that's why you thought that would be a good place for it. The fireworks don't take anywhere close to the fields. We don't set them off in the fields. They're not allowed to be on the fields because it would mess the fields up. I don't think those guys really want to do it on those fields. So that's something to consider, too.

Okay, so when you guys have the show, you're not on the fields, you're just right outside, which actually you wouldn't be able to do with the fire ban right now. Okay. All right. Thank you, Coach Gallagher, and everyone else. Appreciate it. If we have any questions after we get to a point where there's a vote, we'll ask you then, okay? So you don't get to just sit down. Now that I know your names, I can have you come up. Anyone else that wanted to speak?

Good evening, city council. My name is Heidi Haines, and I'm with the Riverton Adult Softball Association. As you know, last night you voiced your opinions and voted on yes to have fireworks down there without any consent or knowledge to any board member. As you know, we have our own MOU away from the girls' fast pitch. I feel this was a stone in our working relationships. But now the main reason why I'm speaking is we all know the county is a complete fire ban. I have been involved with firefighting my entire life. At this time, to allow fireworks in this fire behavior we have is extremely reckless. We have low relative humidity, high winds, and very low moisture content in the fuels. Starting on July 3rd, our fire danger goes into the extreme level. I do have papers from Cody Dispatch to approve. and with a national readiness level of four. Our wonderful fire department and all of our firefighters are already stretched thin. Taking away from their response would be critical. As a member of the softball board for adult league, I spent countless hours to prepare the fields before the season and maintain during hours spent at the fields to keep them solely relies on volunteers to be able to make something for or take something from us and allow something so reckless during a fire ban is disgusting. It shows that the city council does not care about our hours put in as volunteers. If, and I pray that nothing goes wrong and that the vote gets overturned, would the city council members be able to sleep knowing that this reckless vote and choice caused such a devastating event to happen? Could you keep knowing that you took something away from our youth and adults in the community that we look forward doing every year? In five years that I have been playing, I have never once seen a city council member down there to help with field prep. field days, nothing. This all relies on us as volunteers between Fast Pitch and Adult League. Please rescind your vote. And if you want to see these, I can bring them up.

Sure. Yeah, if you don't mind, give it to Councilman Carr here. Thanks, Ms. Haynes.

So this shows our fuel levels and what they're burning at and how many percent for the fourth and that we are in extreme fire behavior. This one is from around our area. As you can see, everywhere else is in normal. However, we start on July 3rd into extremes.

Thank you. Thanks, Ms. Haynes. All right, anyone else? Everybody's doing really well at keeping under two minutes, by the way.

Sweet. Hello, everyone. My name is Kyler Bennett, and I have a couple of concerns that I believe that have not been brought up by the City Council and a lot that are discussions when talking about... this proposed resolution. One of the ones I'd like to bring up is the surge in DUI risk that this resolution could bring within our community. Currently, alcohol-related crashes rose 106% during the 4th of July period compared to similar weekend windows, while total crash volume sharply spiked during hours of 10 p.m., where alcohol-related crashes climbed by 236%, considering this with the typical end of firework displays and the drive home. Every U.S. region recorded an increase led by the In the Northeast, 134%, followed by the South at 129%. In the Midwest, kind of where we are, is 126%. This issue will be exacerbated when law enforcement is forced to attend nuisance firework calls instead of patrolling for impaired drivers, much like the DUI task force is doing already over the Fourth of July weekend. This will be pronounced again when people are trying to travel to or from the baseball field, most likely they're gonna be drinking anyway, or most likely what folks are gonna be doing is transporting themselves between Lander and Shoshone where fireworks have been determined to be legal for the 4th of July weekend. This statistic comes from salvage injury law from last year. Next I want to talk about is effectiveness. According to the National Fire Protection Agency, fireworks started an estimated 34,079 fires in 2024, including 3,246 structure fires 857 vehicle fires, 29,517 outside fires, and 459 unclassified fires. Urban and structure fires only accounted for around 11% of total fires. The vast majority took place outside of urban environments and this resolution is going to exacerbate that issue by encouraging people to light fireworks off outside of city limits where there is less irrigation from their lawns. Again, one of the city council members talked about last night where they're in their yard Their sprinklers could have been running. They have fire extinguishers nearby, hoses. It's a lot easier to fight these fires according to this statistic, and they're less likely because of those influx of water. The next thing I want to talk about is some weather. It should be really quick. Currently the 4th of July weather forecast according to ForeFlight, I'm a commercial pilot, I spend a lot of my time looking at weather, shows 6.3 knots or 7.25 miles per hour out of the west between 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. And according to the National Weather Service Independence Day, sunny Sunday or sunny on Independence Day with a high near 89 with a southwestern wind of around 5 miles per hour becoming calm in the evening. especially with the relative humidity being around 22%, like a couple of the other folks have talked about, but they neglect the fact that last year, the relative humidity was only 30%. And on July 3rd, it was 19%. So we are in a very similar amount of relative humidity, especially with the humidity dropping around or rising to around 49%. I believe that these considerations, the city should reconsider its firework ban and allow fireworks to encourage less drunk drivers, realize that people are going to do it anyway, they're going to light fireworks off regardless if they're doing it in Lander, they're doing it in Riverton, banning it's not going to change anything. And I think the city should really consider that when implementing this resolution.

Thank you, Mr. Bennett. That's okay. Everybody else says that, but they've all been doing great.

My name is . I'm the vice president of the softball committee. I'm ready to respectfully express my concerns regarding the use of fireworks within the city of Riverton, particularly the proposed fireworks ignition at the softball complex. As our community continues to experience severe drought conditions, I urge the city to consider to implement a temporary ban on fireworks, dry vegetation, low humidity, and elevated temperatures create a significant fire risk, placing lives, homes, businesses, and public property in unnecessary danger. It only takes one stray firework to ignite a devastating fire with catastrophic consequences. During the period of extreme doubt, public safety must remain the highest priority. I am also concerned about the impact of firework display and ignition at the softball complex itself. This facility is maintained by dedicated volunteers who generously invest countless hours and resources to keep it safe, clean, and welcoming to local youth and their families. Following a firework event, these volunteers are often left to clean up debris, litter, and other remnants created an additional burden that takes valuable time away from maintaining the fields for the children and families who use them throughout the season. For these reasons, I respectfully ask the council to cancel or relocate any fireworks planned for the softball complex and consider prohibiting fireworks within the city while current drought conditions persist, protecting our community from preventable fire hazards and respecting the volunteers who care for our public spaces, our responsibilities we all share. Thank you for your time and your consideration, and thank you for continuing to serve on this board. I respect your willingness to listen to me here today, and I sincerely hope you give careful consideration to my request.

Thank you. Thank you.

My name is Zach Vogel. I am the treasurer and field manager of the softball fields. Most of the public works knows that I'm down there five, six days a week. My only comment is about I feel very disrespected by this council. Most of Riverton is done by volunteer work, and we weren't even considered when you guys proposed to do it down at the ball fields. There was mention of let our city staff not be burdened with litter, but there was no consideration to the volunteers of Little League that will have to pick up pick up the area. Most of our board is still down there with girls practicing right now. We're not taking in consideration our volunteer fire department, which would much rather not have to police a certain area. And all I want to say is I feel disrespected that the volunteers that make those softball and little league fields possible were not even considered part of the plan to allow an event like this. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Vogel. Anyone else? Come on up. Well, you can. Probably what we're going to do is just let this be a time that we'll have some public comment, and we could probably answer your questions during the discussion after we have a vote, after we have a motion.

Okay.

if that works. Do you want to ask them now and we can think about them?

No, I'll ask afterwards.

Okay, that's fine. We're good either way. Mr. Bennett, did you... What's up? All right, I'll give you like... 30 seconds. No, you're good. Come on up.

Last thing I forgot to talk about is the significant fire potential forecast that's been issued by the USDA Forest Service that no one's really talked about. Currently for the 4th of July weekend, the USDA is putting most of Fremont County, including Riverton, at a low risk for significant fire potential. I have this over here if you guys would like to see it.

Okay, sure. We can pass it around like we did the other one. Come on up, or we'll let former Mayor Warpeness come up first.

Mayor Hancock, Ron Warpeness. I remember having this discussion a few years ago regarding fireworks, and I think the issues are still alive and well. And just as the Little League Board is concerned about their facilities, every homeowner in Riverton is concerned about their facilities and my wife and I spend a lot of time taking care of our home and on and on and it concerns me a lot when these aerial bombs are going off and and on and so I still feel that we have for years gone up by the airport there on Griffey Hill and had fireworks displays up there and if you had a little fire, why it was a grass fire in the sagebrush and that was part of the entertainment when you went up was to take a shovel with yourself so if you started a fire you could put the fire out. We did that for years and years and years. There's a lot of people in town that have animals. I have one that when a firecracker goes off, she goes ballistic. We have one of these thunder vests on her and we give her some kind of medication that's supposed to calm her down, but it doesn't work. So it's just a problem. It's not just me. I mean, there's citizens all over town and senior citizens that feel way not taking into consideration the veterans that may have PTSD or other things that are causing problems. And I just don't see why we want to inflict this on our community. Mayor Gard and I went round and round on it, but I was unsuccessful, so here we are. But well, anyway, that's all I have to say on the subject. I just encourage you to reconsider going back out by where Susan Skidmore has her place. And I think Susan would probably let us continue to use that. But anyway, thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. Appreciate it. Oh, you have impeccable timing, too. Years of practice. That's right.

Thank you, because you brought up one of my points. So my name is Amy Mace Farnham, and I live not too far. I live on Honor Farm Road, and I can hear all of the events that go on in the baseball field at my house. I have the luxury of taking care of pets. I'm a professional pet sitter. I've pet sit over 50 homes. And when I'm pet sitting for the 4th of July while they're all partying, I'm able to take care of the animal. I'm able to know what's going on with it. I'm able to make sure that the gates are secure and it's not going to run away. and get into a car accident with somebody running it over. I'm making sure that it's not getting into parts of the house when it's trying to hide and getting itself sliced up with no vet around. And I'm sure Eric can let us know that have you ever seen an animal hurt on the Fourth of July in all of your career? It's a simple yes or no or nod of the head. Okay. So we don't have a vet here, so I'll represent vets. They do see pets on the 4th of July. The police do have missing pets the very next day because they do get out because of the noise and because they're terrified. Now, That's a problem that we have across the nation, and as far as Wyoming is concerned, we're at the rock bottom of caring for our pets across the United States and for our pet laws. That's not why I'm here tonight either. I bet a few of you have pets, and I bet you consider what you're going to do for those pets that night, just like I do when I'm pet sitting. Here's what I don't know anybody has considered. You're doing this right next to PAWS. PAWS is closed. All of those pets get to have the experience of no human around. all a bunch of animals right next to each other, freaking out, and then giving everybody hysteria. And then somebody in this community is going to try to go and take that dog in the next week or two, or whatever, cat, and then gets to have that every Fourth of July because you had them in an abandoned building with no staff and decided to blow off stuff for hours on end with no one helping them. Please consider this.

Thank you, Ms. Mace Barnum. Is that right? Thank you. Anyone else?

Good evening, Council. Good evening, Mayor. I'll try to keep this short and sweet. My name is Jake Tyra. I just wanted to address the emotional conversation that we're having. And I find it easier in my experience that if we try to get rid of the emotion and try to focus more on the facts of the situation, we can find a common ground where everybody can be appeased. And I agree with... all the softball in the little league, that's probably not the most ideal place. I think I understand why that decision was made to try to appease the general populace and try to cut out all the noise in between. But I agree with the young gentleman back there that spoke about how we are probably better prepared to deal with fireworks. from our home. We have time to plan. We have time to get hoses set out. We have time to get buckets. And it is our own home. We're going to take better care of it, right? So I would encourage you guys to think about not... It's been a while since I've talked in front of people. I apologize.

You're doing fine.

Going back and looking at the statistics and the facts, I mean, the fire chief even talked about how since we've had our fireworks allowed in the city, how their workload has been significantly reduced in the county. And I grew up in the county. I agree with that. Especially even in a good year, when we have moisture, I wouldn't be setting fireworks off unless I was in an irrigated field. This year is a little bit more extreme. I agree with the county ban. We need to look at the the community of Riverton. People are gonna light fireworks off regardless. We don't need to be making criminals out of ordinary people that are trying to celebrate the forest. And like I said, it's irrigated so they have the ability and the capability of taking care of their own individual party, whatever you want to call it. And the other thing that I think is wonderful with the city of Riverton, since they've done the fireworks, is the sense of community that we're trying to build. That is a big part of it. I talk to so many people. I do have a fireworks stand. I'm going to throw that out there. I might be somewhat biased on this. But it's amazing the amount of people that I talk to that as a group, four or five, six houses, they get together collectively and responsibly and set off fireworks. And we're trying to change the culture of our town. And I think that is a great step in that direction. And I would hate to see that discontinued. One last thing that I would like to close on, well, two, if you don't mind. Lander has allowed it, Shoshone has allowed it. I would like to think that we'd take some time and try to understand why, instead of just saying, no, we're not gonna do it. There's gotta be a purpose, there's gotta be a reason. And lastly, I think that if there is no appetite for fireworks, I think that we should sit down and have a conversation. Carla, you alluded to it in the conversation you guys had yesterday or the day before at noon. I think there is room for a common sense compromise. I think that there are... There is an avenue forward where people can still enjoy the forest. Maybe it's not the aerial stuff. Maybe it's the fountains and the sparklers and the snakes. I will end with that, but thank you guys for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Tyra. Anyone else? Chief, do you want to repeat what you said yesterday, or what are you thinking? Not that you have to.

You bet. Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council, thanks for the opportunity to speak. Thank you for the public for being here. I will reiterate that the position of the Riverton Fire Department is unchanging. We would advocate for a ban on fireworks. As I stated yesterday, since the Council started allowing fireworks in city limits, our workload has decreased. Most years, we would... support fireworks in town. Most years, the fire department puts off a small show at our fire station in town, this year being the exception. I read a fuels report today from Sharpnose, which is at Arapahoe, stating that the moisture content in sagebrush, sagebrush fuels, sagebrush type fuels, Normally around this time of year, those fuels are sitting between 100 and 120% moisture. Usually in late August, early September, they're around 60 to 80 mark. Right now they're already sitting at 80%. So fuels are dry and Riverton has an increased risk for wildland urban interface events. One thing that I didn't talk about yesterday that I should have mentioned is the Riverton Fire Department is covers the entirety of the city and basically 10 miles outside city limits. So the county has put on this ban. The BLM has banned, has a fire ban. The reservation has a fire ban. All these agencies have done that for a reason. They're analyzing, seeing the risk. Landers, fuel loading, and wildland interface risk is much different than the city of Riverton. We've seen that a couple times in the last year. As I talked about yesterday, we had a river bottom fire in February. Conditions are extremely dry and they are dangerous. I did have the chance today to meet with the chief of police and the other concerned parties down at the softball fields. Upon evaluating that complex, we found that we could maybe safely house five to six families of people down there setting off fireworks. The space available is not adequate for a whole bunch of consumer size fireworks being set off in that area. So again, I just reiterate, the position of the fire department is unchanging. We understand that it's the 4th of July and everybody wants to celebrate, but our mission is very simple. Our mission is to save lives and property, and we're seeing an undue risk by letting fireworks be set off in city limits this year. Thank you.

Thanks, Chief. All right.

Your Honor, can I ask a question to the Fire Chief?

Let's just hold off just a minute until we get to whatever we have for motions. Okay. Any final takers? We'll consider a motion here pretty quick from the council. Okay. I appreciate everybody being responsible. We heard a lot of different things in just 35 minutes. So appreciate you being here, appreciate your care for our community. So at this point, my request would be, do we have a motion from any of our council members? Regarding anything your honor.

Um, I just wanted to respond to a few things first of all the Riverton Little League Well No, I have something I'd like to say to them, and I'm going to say it, and then we can. Okay, that's fine.

Just keep it brief. We'll get there.

I absolutely will. But to the Riverton Little League, first of all, I accept responsibility. I'm the one that made the suggestion, and I did not have all the facts or information before I did that. I accept responsibility for that, and please accept my apology for that. Through the conversations and through all the information that's been provided, I agree with you. It is not a safe location. It's not a good idea to have that kind of activity, that amount of fireworks and that amount of people down there in that same location. I made that suggestion to try to find a happy medium. There was no ill will at all. in that suggestion, so I wanted to make that clear. My second thing would be, I would make a motion to rescind the amendment to... Help me out.

To the resolution. To the resolution, thank you, my mind went blank. Is it 1599, is that what the resolution number was?

So I will move to amend the resolution and remove the ballparks from a agreed upon location from that. I'll second that.

To revert back to the original.

And refer back to the original. And then we can just decide either allow them or not and stand on it.

OK. So your motion is for passage of 1559 as it was originally presented. Is that where we're at?

Yes, Your Honor.

And then is that your second, Councilwoman Borders?

Yes, sir.

Okay, so resolution 1559 as it was worded previously was a full ban on fireworks within the city limits. Would that be clear enough or should we do that any other way to kind of make things clear here? Would it be kind of like passing it as a new resolution as maybe 1560 with the same language but with that removed?

yeah your honor that would be my recommendation is whatever the council chooses is to do it via a new resolution resolution 1599 allowed you to modify or rescind the provisions of 1599 therefore if if the motion from the councilwoman is to basically go back to the original state of 1599 we can handle that via resolution 1560 and we can put that on the screen if necessary but okay i do have one drafted if that was the yep when i saw you you kind of had

Some different ideas for language there. So just to be clean so we're not having to go back and do something that's gonna stretch Robert's Rules too much, could we just have that as a motion for passage of basically the same resolution as it was before with the amended language removed? Would that work?

That will work.

Okay.

Okay, so I need clarification. So that takes us back to the point that we were before.

Right, where we were just saying a full ban of fireworks in the city of Riverton.

So I'm gonna rescind my second.

Okay.

Because I want a full ban.

I don't want to go back to the way it was. The full ban was what, 1559? Okay. Yeah. So that would be.

So you can rescind it and it'll still be.

Yeah, we're okay.

This is just taking the honey cut fields off of it right now.

Okay. So this would be for passage of a new resolution that would be a full ban of fireworks within the city of Riverton on the 4th of July. So that's the motion. That's the second. Now we're on discussion on that. So first off. We had a gentleman who had a few questions. If you want to ask them now, that could be a good time to come up if you want to or not. Are you sure? Because next time you deliver my mail, you can snag me and we'll talk. I don't have any problem, but we could do that right now. Yeah, that's fine. Okay, any other discussion from the council?

Your Honor, I'd just like to echo what Councilwoman Johnson said. As I said on the Little League Facebook post today, I sincerely apologize. I thought what we were doing was trying to find a compromise, but there are a lot of things that I don't think we took time to think about. I wish we weren't on such a time crunch with the fourth being on Saturday. It probably would have made things a little easier, but I do sincerely apologize. I'm going to date myself, but I was volunteering on those slow pitch fields probably before a lot of you were born. And so I do know what it's like to be down there and to help. In my later years, I haven't been able to as much, but I just want you to know that I back you 100%, and I do apologize, and I'm really glad we're not going to have him down there. So that's all I've got to say.

Good deal. Your Honor, may I add to that too? And I just want to dispel a few other things too that I read online, which were not factual. We do care about volunteers and the work that you do. There are far and few between. So if you're feeling dismissed, I apologize for that. But that was not our intention. And so claiming anything otherwise is simply false. We appreciate what you do down there. I support Riverton Little League both financially through my own personal pockets and through my business. I have grandsons that play as well. So to say something like that is just simply false. And I can empathize with the messes that are left behind because I do close my business. business parking lot typically for day in the park because of the trash that's left behind, the cleanup that I have to do. And I can recognize that. I can understand that. So... I'm not going to dive too much further into that. I just wanted to say that. I don't know that I agree with the total ban, but I would like to see it removed from the honeycap field, and that's where I'll leave that.

Okay. Well, right now, that's the motion is for a total ban. That's the resolution.

The other thing that I think got a little bit misleading in some of the reporting on what we did yesterday was, again, the fire department basically said what Jesse said today, which is they recommended a ban totally. This body's the one that come up with, okay, they had fireworks down there a week ago, and maybe that'd be a good place to try, so we would, again, come up with a compromise so we had some place that people could light off fireworks and not be in town. The only thing the firemen got drug back into is they weren't sure exactly where on the baseball fields that we would allow the fireworks and they were going to assist us maybe in figuring out what the best place would be and that's the only approval of anything that they sort of did is I think got hornswoggled into helping us figure out where the best place would be. So they were totally against it every time and so You know, that's why we made that decision. And we were trying to come up with a compromise so we could still have some fireworks on 4th of July. But, again, that's the challenge.

Well, and I had said the same thing yesterday. I think no matter what we do, and trust me, I'm the last person that's going to say, let's just make something legal because people are going to do something illegal. That is not my MO, generally speaking. But my concern is the greater risk is out of city limits. And if we don't want people doing fireworks out of city limits, then they need to do them somewhere. So we have a couple of options where they're going to be done. One is in Lander. One is in Shoshone. And the other one could be Riverton. And as far as I'm concerned, I would rather encourage people to be doing the fireworks in Riverton where they have irrigated, yards, where they have water nearby, because it's going to happen. And I would rather have it be something where people can have an enjoyable fourth and be responsible. I agree with the fire chief. There's always going to be risk. But at the same time, we have to balance that. Every day I wake up, there's a chance I'm going to die today. Probably the most dangerous thing everybody does every day is get behind the wheel of a car. But guess what we do just about every day? We get behind the wheel of a car. So we take risk every day. And to me, I think I was very against fireworks a couple years ago when we discussed this. But since then, I have gone up to Griffey Hill, and I have looked out, and I have seen fireworks all over the city of Riverton. And guess what? I love it. And I think just about everybody that's out there doing it is doing it responsibly, and I believe they will do it responsibly. And so that's where I stand on it. Now, that doesn't mean everybody has to agree with me, but those are the things I find persuasive about it. You can come back up if you want, Mayor Warpeness.

If I could just make one quick comment. When you say fireworks, that's a pretty broad statement. Are you talking about ladyfingers? Where are you talking about three-pound aerial bombs? And I don't personally have a problem with, you know, the kids out playing in the yard and popping off little firecrackers and blowing up anthills, if that's your desire. You know, been down that road. But, God, some of the things they're shooting off overhead are scary. I'm dead serious when I said, and Councilman Larson took me to task over it, When I was in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive, it wasn't as loud at the base camp that I was in as it was around my home at 4th of July. And you can take that for what it's worth. I was there. I know. And so there was firefights that were a lot worse, but just generally speaking, It was all background noise, you know, and on and on and on. But some of the stuff they're shooting off now are just, they shouldn't be fired off, I think, in residential areas. But I'm not opposed to, you know, small little firecrackers that go pop and the kids, you know. But it's such a broad statement when you say fireworks. Right. Anyway. Thank you.

All right, any other discussion on this?

Your Honor, one of the things that happens when you sit up here is you learn how to compromise. You can't be just one way. I'm a pretty open-minded person. And if somebody brought an idea here that said, we have this spot to do this, we have this plan, I might be willing to change my mind, but we don't have that.

I hear you. Oh, that was a time. Mayor Warpness, as usual, did very well at keeping the...

So we don't have anybody in town that has a 400-acre field that's been freshly tilled that we could go out? That would be handy. That would be nice.

That would be handy. I used to have one.

Your Honor, I just want to share some of the correspondence that I got throughout the day. There were several people that called, and this is not a fun seat to sit in, for those of you who think it may be or think that we're on some kind of pedestal. We're not. We're human. We make mistakes. We have our own thoughts. We have our own feelings. We all share the same freedoms. And I've gotten significant response from both sides, people who want to just enjoy the fourth and light them off and celebrate their freedoms and others who share in the same concerns as Mr. Warpness and others who have animals and concerns about their safety. But the bottom line is we have to make a decision and stand on it. And it's not easy. It's not fun. I'm prepared to do that. Some people are just going to have to be upset, and I'm sorry. I don't know what else to say. I don't know what other direction to go with it.

Councilman Larson?

I see you back there, so you can come up in just a second.

I understand the feelings that pet owners have since I have two Great Danes. And my friend, the vet, I just asked her, and she said trazodone. And I know sometimes not, unless the dog's knocked out, they're upset about it. But Mayor has asked that, In our area, I live above Karen, and I don't think we've had a fire in that area, and we light off the whole block on Karen Street, joins together. You just go up to her house specifically? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. We have dueling contests. And they clean up afterwards. There are children. It's an open field above Holiday Inn, behind her. And I've only been there 22 years, and we've never had a fire there. Never means never. The school is behind us. We're responsible. I have hoses out, and... I'm sorry if there's dog lovers and PTS people. Yeah, you're right. Vietnam was a bitch. We've all suffered from war complexes, but this is not an everyday occurrence. This happens to be 250 years of independence. You can't make an easy decision. We did not mean any harm to the little league baseball field at all. And we're sorry that we didn't include you in the information, but it was published. And there was concerns about fire bans. We come every week. it seems, and sometimes we spend until 11, 12 o'clock at night, and I understand your concerns, but every other person has concerns too. They've bought firecrackers. They've made an expense on it. We have vendors that depend on it. I think there's much to do about something that fire hoses, cans of water, responsible adults can handle, and we're not driving drunk on our automobiles, which cause more damage than fires.

That's the big difference between Riverton and Lander. You still have the open container laws in the city of Riverton during the 4th of July. Just be aware. You do not in Lander. I'm not going to make any comment on which one is better, but I would say if anybody were over at the ball fields and they were drinking, that would be a violation of our city ordinance. Just FYI. Whether there's fireworks or not.

I'm for it. For individuals taking responsibility in their own yards behaving as an adult. Thank you.

Your Honor. Mr. Butterfield. Just for a point of clarification and maybe order, we had a motion on the floor. Was that the second to that motion rescinded? Is there a motion or no?

We clarified the motion on the floor right now is for passage of Resolution 1560, which is the original language of 1599, which is a fireworks ban as the original language of 1599. 1,600, you mean? Yes.

Yeah, $1,600. Oh, did I say $1,500?

I keep on screwing it up.

But, Your Honor, my motion is just to remove. I'm not going to be supportive of a citywide ban. My motion is to remove the honeycutt fields from any language that we're discussing. So the amendment. The amendment. I just want to remove the amendment.

The original one was for a ban. The original motion was for a ban. And we said except for.

Okay, so then point of clarification, do we need to vote on that as a whole and deny it and go back to the original?

Well, if you're wanting to withdraw your motion there, let's just go back to, do we have a motion?

Then I'll withdraw.

Is there a motion on the floor? And let's be clear, because no matter what, we'll have it in Resolution 1600.

Are we correct now? 1560.

Okay, so you're leading me astray, Mike. You said it wrong. Goodness sakes.

Because you said 1599 before.

Okay, so we're talking about the possibility of what resolution 1560 could have.

And your honor, if it's helpful to the council taking the feedback thus far, I could provide the two different options because what I'm hearing is allowing fireworks pursuant to what is currently in municipal ordinance. or restricting fireworks as allowed in municipal ordinance through resolution, which is required. You have to restrict it by resolution.

So the point would be in this, just to simplify this as much as we can, and I'm sorry that this is like watching paint dry or I don't know what it is, but you're not having fun out there and I'm not up here either because I'm making mistakes and I don't like that either. By the way, everybody does really well at speaking in groups, even though you think you don't. The question then would become, Resolution 1560, Mr. Bailey, could be one of two things from where I'm hearing the discussion. Number one would be that it would just be language completely rescinding resolution 1559, which would mean we're back on for fireworks. So if resolution 1560 says resolution 1559 is rescinded, we're doing fireworks per our code. The second option would be resolution 1560 being what 1559 used to be, which is a fireworks ban. So to make that clear, what I guess I would say is maybe just who's for fireworks in the city of Riverton and who's against fireworks in the city of Riverton. Let's just do a straight up or down poll now and then figure out the language later. Is that fair enough?

I'm okay with that.

So we'll start with Councilman Larson. You said you were for fireworks in the city of Riverton. Correct. Without restrictions.

Correct.

Not trying to put everybody on the spot, but I mean... Putting everybody on the spot. I'm going to put everybody on the spot. Councilwoman Johnson, where were you on that?

I am for without restrictions.

Okay. Councilman Carr? Against. Against. All right. I'm just going to write this down, and we're going to use this whole technology thing called a pen and paper.

Wow.

Councilwoman Brothers?

I'm going to go with the chief and go against.

Okay. Councilman Bailey? Yes. Against. If you guys make me do a tie vote, I am going to.

Against.

Okay. At least I don't have to break a tie.

Okay. Your Honor. Yes, sir. Can I just make a motion to resolution 1560 to be worded exactly as it was presented as 1559.

with a ban on fireworks in the city of Limits.

And I'll second that.

So we have a motion by Councilman Carr for a fireworks ban, just to be very, very clear. And Councilwoman Brothers with the second on that. Now, we've heard a lot of different things from the public. We have one more who wanted to make a comment. You're welcome to come up. Come on up, because this is recorded and people watch it on YouTube because they like to watch me do dumb stuff.

So you have passed the ban for this year, which we agreed and heard that you're working towards that. But what happens next year? Can somebody put a new resolution together for where and when and how?

So right now, the city of Riverton has an ordinance in place that restricts fireworks except for two days. New Year's Eve and 4th of July. So that's our ordinance. The ordinance specifically allows by resolution for that to change depending on whatever there might be. So we could talk about this December 30th, December 29th and say we want to have fireworks on New Year's Eve or not. We could talk about it July 1st next year and to say fireworks or not. But the default is fireworks are not allowed The exception is July 4th and December 31st. The exception to the exception is if we have a resolution ban.

Okay, thanks for that clarification. And just for me, I wasn't against a ban. I was against a ban next to a building with a bunch of animals with no humans in it.

I understand. And I appreciate you giving us that feedback. I saw some of the nodding as I was talking, and you guys might not know it, but I can kind of see where the public stands. The chief is very much, he tries to be really poker face.

Mm-hmm.

And he does really good at it.

Just one quick comment. Every meeting we have, we thank and we pray for our fire department, our police department, our first responders. Every meeting, without fail. They're here imploring us not to have fireworks. Just this year. Let's answer their prayers.

Let's just get it done. Nice. That's a nice line. I like it, Eric.

And I agree. I like doing fireworks as much as anybody, but I think in the case we have this year, with the amount of dryness, with zero snow through the whole winter, I think we have to err on the side of caution. And if we can save somebody's home or somebody from getting hurt, it's worth it to put it off until... Christmas next year or New Year's next year when we have a foot of snow on the ground and we can just whoop it up big time. That'd be nice.

You can come on up if you'd like, sir.

I just want to point out that we're trying to change the look of Riverton. We're trying to make Riverton a better place, an open-armed up for everybody to come here. We're having the first parade we've ever had here this weekend. You guys ban them, everybody's going to Lander. I'm going to tell you that right now. Main Street's going to be empty. Everyone's going to Lander. We're going to stay over there all day, shoot fireworks off over there, and drive back. The drinking and driving is going to be a big deal. Everybody knows it happens. This is just going to add more to it.

I hear you, Mr. Despain.

I just wanted to say that, and I know there were some comments on Facebook about doing it at the soccer fields. That's private property, so that's the only reason I was here, was just to make sure that wasn't brought up.

Well, nice job. You're like, I don't want to be in the same position as the Little Leaguers where somebody says...

The property at the Little League and the property at the new soccer fields is the city doesn't own the property at the soccer fields.

I agree. Well, I mean, you're talking the new ones, not Ryan Park.

Yeah, the new ones. We're not talking Ryan Park. And that was another concern I had was Ryan Park was going to be brought up. We just put $30,000 into Ryan Park out of our own pocket, so...

You guys do good work. Right next to the river.

Yep, right next to the river. But we did put all that money into it to fix the fields for our future.

And I do want to echo what's been said up here. We really appreciate all the work that volunteers put into stuff. It gets a little interesting, and maybe we get some blinders on it because we're like, oh, Little League, that's something that's city-owned. And then it's like, yeah, okay, fine, but there's a lot of people that put a lot of work in there, and they have a vested interest in it.

In Fremont County, and so... I just want to point that out, and everybody's worried about the fire conditions in Riverton. Shoshone's letting it happen. It's a desert out there. More sagebrush out there than there are in city limits of Riverton. Why would Shoshone let it happen if their concerns aren't the same as yours?

More sagebrush than people?

No, not more people. I'm just kidding. More sagebrush. It's more of a prairie fire issue out there, so that's just something to bring up, and I understand the vote's probably already going one way, so thank you guys.

I appreciate it, Mr. Despain. You could add something if you want to. Okay. He got it? You agree with him? Well, and they've... Forty-five. Forty-five.

Yeah, 45, that's right. Yeah.

I still think even if the fireworks are banned, which, by the way, you've already heard me. I've been on my soapbox, but I still think, and I understand people saying, hey, part of my 4th of July celebration is having fireworks, and it's not really a part of mine, and I know that sounds really funny because I'm one of the ones that are saying, hey, let's not ban them, but it is a part of mine in the sense that I love going up on Griffey Hill and watching it, and And so that's where it is part of mine. But, you know, for a lot of people where it is part of it that they want to set them off, I agree. It's going to be something where they might go elsewhere. So I appreciate that feedback. And I think we've heard that. And I appreciate that. And thank you. Councilwoman Brothers.

Thank you. I did have a question for the fire chief. That's right. You did. Because especially to speak to this, because, yeah, you know, at home and before I got here and, That is my big question, and with Kyler saying that, with people going back and forth, and I used to live in Lander, too, and I do understand that. But, you know, you brought this up, and so I wanted to make this public, but what are the conditions in Lander and Shoshone, and how are they different from Riverton, and why is that important that you're making the statement that we ban them then?

Absolutely. So if you look at the conditions, especially surrounding the outskirt edges of Riverton versus Lander and Shoshone, as you pointed out, Shoshone is out in the desert conditions, so it's light, flashy fuels that will run rather quickly. Shoshone is also a much smaller town, and they're supported by Fremont County Fire Protection District. So their wildland-urban interface is completely different than what we face in the city of Riverton. Lander, being nestled in the foothills, they have the blessing of not being surrounded by a ton on two sides, essentially, by cottonwood river bottom with high portions of willows and heavy fuels. So again, their wildland-urban interface is not what we face with the city of Riverton. We've seen two events in the last three years of major river bottom fires. One during the summer that was wind driven where we had to bring in aerial tankers to try to stop the thing and it crawled through the golf course and we barely got it stopped. The last one was in February. We should not be seeing those kind of fires at that time of year. And that's what I'm trying to explain is that our concern is you look around the country in the Midwest about wildland urban interface, the discussion in the fire service in the Midwest. You look at what happened in Los Angeles, that's wildland urban interface. What happened to Boulder, Colorado four years ago is wildland urban interface. When wildland fires come to town is where... my greatest concern for our community and safety of lives and property comes in. Does that answer your question?

Yes, thank you. Now I'd like to talk to the Chief of Police. Chief of Police, if that's okay? Yeah. So Chief, so addressing the issue of the what-ifs for the drunk driving, what will you have set up, first of all, and second of all, in past years when we've had bans, tell me about what that has looked like between here and Lander.

I'll tell you that law enforcement agencies throughout Fremont will be out in extra force this weekend. We, from probably about six o'clock to midnight, it's anywhere, it's just chaos. We go call to call to call to call to call. Fire department will be going cold call already. And I appreciate the questions, but, this is our busiest time of the year. And from the police standpoint, it's going to be busy. I know running our dispatch center, fire department's being busy. And that's if, like the fire chief said, if they're available. I know everyone's aware that in Utah, we had three firefighters killed, several been hospitalized. Resources are getting pulled quickly to assist in other fires around us. And who's to say they might not be available to protect us here? We're going to be stretched thin. We'll deal with it. But as much help as we can get to curb the emergencies, because we can only handle probably about one or two emergencies at a time.

Can you come on up, Mr. Despain? I know we've had a couple of people talking from the...

So we brought up the DUIs. We brought up driving back and forth, Shoshone to Lander and all that stuff. This ban will make fireworks illegal to shoot off in the city of Riverton. That is a misdemeanor, felony. What is that? $750 fine. $750 fine. It's a misdemeanor. It's going to happen. Everybody's aware. It's going to happen. we're gonna stretch our cops thin by every phone call, every aerial firework goes up, a cop's driving around, he's gonna pull over, 30 minutes to stand there, take citations, write names, and all that stuff. That takes away from your DUI task force and all that stuff that's gonna be patrolling the streets. So that's something to consider also. I can guarantee you there's gonna be more fireworks still going off in Riverton, no matter what this ordinance goes either direction. And then these guys are going to be getting calls from neighbors that are mad. They're going to have to go deal with it. And there's a cop here on Broadway. There's a cop on Main Street. There's a cop on Sherrill, Sioux, wherever. But just something to think about also.

Your Honor.

Thanks.

So which one, Mr. Despain? We just had the fire, you know, a house fire where we had some deaths. Which one? You know, fire with deaths or –

You know, DUI that just killed two people right there on Broadway.

But Chief, do we have, can we do that? I mean, and people, you know, we have people out there, right, policing. And, you know, that's my question to you. Can we do that? And in years past, have we done that? And how dangerous has that been? You know, weighing the impact of both of these which one is more important? That is my question.

No, I got your question. I understand that, but we also have to look at, you're saying house fire, we lost people. That was super sad. I understand that. What was it, two weeks ago? Had a 60-mile-an-hour DUI driver. T-bone people kill two people. Like, you got to weigh your odds on that, but house fire, grass fires in town, people have their own fire extinguishers, hoses, all that stuff. This is a controlled environment to where it would be controlled the house fire that happened that the people lost their lives. That was accidental. Wasn't prepared for nothing. DUI, you don't know who's going to be drunk on the road. Like it's, he was 60 mile an hour from where 45 to 30 to 60 didn't even touch his brakes. So That's something to think about too. And it's a 30-minute drive from Riverton to Lander and an 18-minute drive to Shoshone. So that's a lot of highway to stress about and a lot of people commuting.

Your Honor.

Yes, sir.

Prior to calling the question, is it okay per tradition if the resolution be read by title only? I think so.

We better do that. Your Honor, can I? Because we had a motion for a resolution.

Ms. Harris, before we go any further on this,

Just to clarify, let's make sure we read the resolution by title only and go from there, please.

Yes, Your Honor. Resolution number 1560, a resolution of the governing body of the city of Riverton, Wyoming, modifying provisions of resolution number 1559 to restrict the use of fireworks within the city of Riverton on July 4th, 2026. All right.

Thank you. Councilwoman Johnson, go ahead.

I just want to throw some food for thought out in response to Ms. Brothers. You know, I dispatched for several years. I worked every 4th of July for 12 years in the dispatch center. I understand how busy it gets. And literally the calls start at 6 a.m. and they don't end until 2, 3 o'clock in the morning. This is the same scenario every single year. There's a 4th of July every single year. And every single year, every one of these entities prepare for it. They don't know what's coming in, but they're prepared to handle it. That's why they're professionals. Aside from that, banning this – and I just want this – I want, for those of you that fill, that you have to ban them – You are forcing people to go outside into the unincorporated areas where there, I think, according to the paperwork that we've been giving, is more fuels for fire. They're going to find places to go light them off where they're going to try to avoid tickets. That's what's going to happen. And then what else is going to happen is the blame and the anger is going to shift to the police department for not writing citations to every single person that's shooting them off in town because some people are going to feel that $750 is worth their freedom. It's going to happen. We know it's going to happen. We cannot enforce the ban. You can put it in place and we can agree to it and put it in place, but it's unenforceable and it's unrealistic. And that is just food for thought. Aside from that, maybe next year we can talk about a drone and light show. that appeases everybody that doesn't have big booms and is stressful on people with health conditions and animals and everybody can enjoy. But this year, I really feel like the 250th is a significant one. The weather conditions are unfavorable. That's recognized. But people can either be adults or they can suffer the consequences. People are capable of making their own choices.

We have three drones by next year that maybe we could have a three-drone light show.

Your Honor, if I could ask Mayor Warpness to come up, I have a question for you. Take your time, Ron. Not to put you on the spot. So you had mentioned when you were up here earlier the possibility of being out there. I think what you were talking about was by Griffey where Mrs. Goodmore lives up on top.

That's right, up by the old Valley View.

Do you know if there's any permission? Whose land is that?

I recall that they get the permission from Susan that owns the property around there. just to make sure that her property is protected but they'd just shoot out over the lip of the Griffey Hill and there'd be cars parked all along and the whole community was able to see it and I hate the thought of not having any fireworks in town but it's the aerial bombs and stuff that just seemed to cause the greatest problem. And I agree with Councilman Johnson that it's basically unenforceable. So what? For years, we didn't allow it in town. You'd still have them. There'd be a few people around that shoot them, but you're not giving them a license to do whatever they want to do. I had a beautiful little shed out in the back of my house that had a nice master lock on it. Had some stuff in it. Guess what? Guy come by with a bolt cutter and... opened it up and took a couple things out of it. We try to point the direction that we want the community to go. It seems to me, and I think you just need to be sensitive to all of the citizens, and there's a lot of citizens out there that have difficulty dealing with what we're dealing with now.

Your Honor.

Mr. Bailey.

Unless we're setting aside 6 o'clock tomorrow, I don't suggest we come up with any areas that we think ought to be okay for fireworks because we'll have all the residents of the airport here tomorrow to talk to us just like we did yesterday.

I'd offer my yard, but it's not that big.

I'll do it at the Shandell Event Center. Well, bring it up.

I've got a metal building.

At least you're here, I guess.

My home has shake roof on it, so there's quite a difference between a metal roof and a... And that was my thought, too.

We had people that were suggesting Ryan Park or whatever, and I was like... The last thing I want to have is now all the soccer people come out in force, and I appreciate you're here. I'm not saying I'm not glad you're here. The last thing I want to do is tonight we say, Ryan Park it is, and then tomorrow.

And the mayor is playing soccer at this time, I think, so you need to be watching.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. I appreciate it. If I could, I still have something else. Sure. This is what we grapple with. You know, it's a tough, tough decision. I don't want to ban fireworks, but I feel like I need to support the fire department. We don't need to burden them. I mean, you might as well have lighter fluid on this stuff out here, and if one spark hits, we could be in trouble.

We...

All right, let's try to avoid... We saw what happened in that fire in February, I think it was, when it jumped the river and they were evacuating people out there. I don't want to see that happen.

I agree. Okay, so we've had a lot of people speak. I've appreciated what people have said. If there's someone who has not spoken yet, in the back there, you're welcome to come on up. Well, you did speak for like... You still have at least a minute. And then with the striped shirt, too, you could come on up.

One thing we haven't talked about is the effect on the highway patrol. And they're in a $3 million budget deficit right now. So they are not allowed to drive so many miles. So they're not going to be able to cover those roads. They can't do it. And we're going to send thousands of people other places with this decision. And it's going to make those roads even more dangerous with people traveling at night. So that's something to consider.

Thank you, Mr. Gallagher. All right, and I don't mean to just call you the lady in the striped shirt, but that's the best I got.

My name's Elizabeth Martin. I really don't have a dog in a fight here. I just want to point out that it doesn't have to be either or as far as drinking and driving or setting fires. Anybody that is worried about driving, they can have fun, drink what they want, have a designated driver or WRTA is offering free rides for anybody. So there's no reason for a drunk driver to be on the road. Plan ahead and everybody can have fun.

So you're saying much like we're talking about people planning ahead with fireworks, which is what we've been promoting, right? Plan ahead with your drinking too.

Good call. Thank you for the reminder, Ms. Martin. Okay.

It's because the responsible people are in the audience. It's the irresponsible people that we end up with.

I think my point is that really, and we've been talking about things like liability and stuff like that. The reality is who's liable? The person who does it. That's how liability works. If you go and set off fireworks and you do something that causes damage to somebody else's home, you are liable for that, period, end of story. And I say that in terms of that's personal responsibility. That's you making sure that you're being smart and doing things that make sense, like getting a ride from WRTA, which is having a fair, free summer, by the way. All right, if you can be quick.

I just have a proposed idea.

Okay.

So we've talked a lot about why I should and why I shouldn't preparation. and everyone agrees that this is gonna happen either way. So why don't we make an idea on how people have to be prepared rather than just saying they will be prepared or they won't be prepared. Like require 10 gallons of usable water near fireworks lighting off, a 50 foot hose that has constant flow water, no fireworks within 50 feet of unirrigated land or yards, things along those lines. Along the lines of like with the baseball field, we could also propose an alternative solution at their home regulations that they would follow to encourage the safety.

It's a nice idea, Mr. Bennett. And I don't mean to say this, but you said you're a pilot. You don't look that old to me. I am sorry. I thought...

He's one of my old debaters.

One of your old debaters?

One of the best.

I'm not trying to be ageist, Mr. Bennett. I just, when you first came up, I was like, oh, this is great. We've got, like, high school students trying to... I don't mean to remind you this, sir, but that means you're getting old. Right? Thanks. As somebody who was your neighbor when I was like a kid. OK, we have done a lot of discussion. And I really appreciate the feedback. Everybody has given us a lot to think about. I think, though, we're ready for a vote. Or do we have anything else that we want to talk about here? OK, so to be clear, the language of Resolution 1560 is up on the board. I feel like I'm in a game show or something. Now therefore be it resolved by the governing body of the city of Riverton pursuant to section 8.04010 of the Riverton Municipal Code, discharge and use of all consumer fireworks. That's to kind of address some of what Mr. Warpness was talking about. Otherwise authorized under that section are prohibited within the corporate limits of the city of Riverton on July 4th, 2026. So for those who are against fun and everything... No, I'm just kidding.

I'm joking. I'm joking.

I hope everybody knows these are always hard decisions. And at the end of the day, we're still going to work with each other. We're going to still have respect for each other and admiration and appreciation for each other, even though we disagree. So I hope that you can try to do the same thing with your neighbors who might disagree with you as well. But... Let's go ahead and have a vote. So all those in favor of passage of Resolution 1560 as it has been presented, just to be clear, ban on fireworks in the city limits on July 4th. Say aye. Aye. And those who are against, against Resolution 1560, so therefore four fireworks in city limits on July 4th. I'm just trying to, I know it sounds dumb, but we've done this before where it's been confusing. So four fireworks on July 4th of this year, say aye. Or say nay. Nay. Nay. So I vote nay. Nay.

I'm nay to the resolution, yes to fireworks.

Nay to the resolution, yes to fireworks. Nay to the resolution, yes to fireworks.

Nay to the resolution, yes to fireworks.

with four votes for, three votes, I'm sorry, with four votes for the resolution against fireworks, three votes against the resolution for fireworks. The resolution passes and we don't have fireworks on July 4th. Thank you everybody for being here. I would entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved.

Second.

Motion by Councilman Larson, second by Councilwoman Borders. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. 7.23 p.m. We are adjourned. Thank you.