In Our View: July 4 Debate Reignites

Truth be known, we have Founding Father John Adams to blame for one of Clark County’s ongoing debates. With the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the then-eventual second president of the United States wrote, “It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.”

The pomp and parade, no one is arguing with. Same with the shows, games, and sports. But when it comes to illuminations from one end of Clark County to the other, we tend to have a problem.

Before we know it, the Fourth of July will be upon us, carrying with it debates about the use of personal fireworks. You likely are familiar with this, as the use of such fireworks has led to an increasingly incendiary discussion in recent years. While many residents enjoy celebrating the Fourth of July — and the second, the third, the fifth, etc. — by setting off firecrackers or other detonations, many others find the mini-explosions to be a nuisance at best or a danger to pets and veterans with PTSD at worst.

Within the city of Vancouver, fireworks now are available for sale only from July 2 through July 4, and they may be discharged only from 9 a.m. to midnight July 4. Residents who use fireworks on other days may face a $250 fine, and fines for illegal fireworks start at $500. To educate the public about the rules — and to reduce the need for enforcement — the Vancouver Fire Department is undertaking an informational campaign that includes TV ads, billboards and newspaper ads. “We’ve taken an extremely proactive approach toward educating the public,” Deputy Fire Marshal Zane Norris told the Vancouver City Council earlier this week.

Such an approach is most welcome, but it undoubtedly will not eliminate the problem. There are bound to be those who are unaware of the law or choose to ignore it; such is life in a city of 170,000 people.

Meanwhile, in unincorporated Clark County, fireworks may be sold from June 28 to July 4 and may be discharged during certain hours those same days. The reasoning behind the disparity between Vancouver and unincorporated areas is understandable — it would not make sense to have rural regions governed by the same rules as the urban core — but those differences can be frustrating for residents in densely populated-but-unincorporated areas such as Salmon Creek and Hazel Dell, where a neighbor’s fireworks can sound like an incoming mortar shell.

The county has adopted rules that will be implemented in 2016. These rules effectively address the rural-urban divide by creating two zones governed by differing fireworks laws. While the decision is sensible, the delay in its formulation adds to the frustration. In November 2013, 60.3 percent of voters supported a nonbinding advisory question on the ballot instructing the county to limit the sale of fireworks to three days and to limit their use to the Fourth of July. County leaders hemmed and hawed over the issue for months before settling in September on the two-zone solution, too late for 2015 implementation.

Regardless of which rules are in place, a couple axioms hold true: One is that residents should know and follow the laws that govern their neighborhood; another is that illuminations will be used to celebrate the Fourth of July forever more. We have Adams, in part, to blame for that — or maybe we should thank him.