A group of Nobleboro citizens asked the Board of Selectmen, at their April 25 meeting, to consider rules to control or prohibit the possession and use of consumer fireworks.
Mary McGee said, after the meeting, that the potential for fire danger was the primary issue.
“Up until this past rain we had a significant drought situation,” she said. “I live at the end of a dirt road and it’s pretty well surrounded by woods.” McGee said those woods presented a lot of fuel and that, once a fire started, residents of woods roads such as the one she lives on might be trapped without a safe exit.
“We also had a concern about personal injury,” McGee said. “Statistics are pretty significant regarding injury to people under the age of 16, even though it’s illegal for them to purchase and handle them. I’ve done a lot of homework.”
McGee said she also wanted the selectmen to consider the need to prevent public nuisance and noise pollution issues, especially in congested areas and neighborhoods where one person or family might set fireworks off frequently.
“We are also concerned about wildlife,” she said. “The noise has a significant impact on nesting birds and farm animals.”
Chairman Dick Spear said the Board of Selectmen took the concerns under advisement and agreed to research how other Lincoln County towns addressed the matter.
“We divided the towns up among the three selectmen and will report at the next meeting,” he said.
McGee has looked farther afield. She said an ordinance adopted in Cumberland prohibits use and sale of consumer fireworks except on New Year’s Eve and a period of days surrounding the 4th of July.
“Other towns have allowed use on the 4th and the weekends before and after it,” she said. McGee said that would make prevention of wildfires and injuries easier than it would be if fireworks were allowed 365 days a year.
Of Maine’s 457 municipalities, 33 had adopted fireworks ordinances, as of April 26. In Lincoln County, only Wiscasset has done so. That ordinance prohibits the sale of any consumer fireworks in the town, except in the Rural and Commercial Districts along Rt. 1 from the Wiscasset/Woolwich town line to the southerly end of Flood Avenue, and puts some restrictions on those sales.
The ordinance lays out rules under which the use of fireworks may be allowed, with the permission of the fire chief or his designee.
Edgecomb has not passed an ordinance and a fireworks store has opened there. Bristol has formed an advisory committee to determine whether the town should adopt an ordinance and what that might include. Newcastle and Damariscotta have draft ordinances that will be presented to voters in June.
The next meeting of the Nobleboro Board of Selectmen is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. on Wed., May 9. For more information, call the Nobleboro Town Office at 563-8816.
