Gun Plain Township board members launched some complaints about the amount of fireworks going off.
Board members discussed the matter at their Thursday, July 6, regular meeting.
Township trustee Ron Kopka said, “I remember when we didn’t have explosions every few minutes. It was quiet around here.”
Board members asked State Rep. Mary Whiteford, R-Casco Twp., —who was at the meeting giving a legislative update—to look into doing something at the state level to lessen things.
Kopka said, “The state needs to change what’s going on.
“If that fails, I think we should do some education to people.”
The township adopted the most restrictive standards allowed by state law, restricting fireworks use to the day before, day of and day after state holidays and only from 8 a.m. to midnight.
The original 2011 law that allowed the sale of fireworks in Michigan was amended in 2013 to allow local communities to enact those standards. The standards don’t seem to make much difference to a lot of people, board members said, and also pointed out the number of pop-up fireworks vendors they’ve seen around the county.
A petition on MoveOn.org demanding the governor and state legislature take action on a full repeal of the law had gathered 37,000 signatures as of Monday, July 10.
During the Gun Plain meeting, board members discussed the problem with not having the manpower or time to enforce the current rules.
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