Quispamsis Looks To Address Fireworks Complaints

A councillor in Quispamsis wants a “better way forward” to deal with private fireworks displays in the town.

The issue was raised at council earlier this week in light of an incident that happened over the holidays.

Victoria and Kris McGuire said a rocket-type firework from a neighbour’s display struck their dining room window on Christmas Eve.

“With the high winds they obviously fell over and fired everywhere … It was like a war zone,” they wrote in an email to Coun. Kerrie Luck.

On Christmas Day, they noticed burn marks in the window pane and on the siding of their home.

“I called KV fire department who came and removed the siding and found the debris from the rocket inside. They explained how lucky we were that the house didn’t catch alight,” they wrote.

Luck said since the incident happened, she has heard from many people on both sides of the issue.

“I’m not proposing an outright ban as this is not what all the residents want,” Luck told council Tuesday night. “What I’m asking for is for us to explore best practices in other communities, perhaps similar in size, to see if we find a happy medium to address this issue.”

Luck said she has heard from many people that the town’s current bylaws “aren’t quite doing what we want them to.”

The town’s current noise bylaw allows fireworks to be used between dusk and 11 p.m. every day without a permit.

Coun. Kirk Miller said he thinks the town needs to modify some of its current bylaws and “put some teeth” into them.

“I don’t care what’s going on, on Monday on a work night, they shouldn’t be going off at 11 o’clock at night,” said Miller.

Miller said that he has noticed an increase in consumer fireworks being detonated in the town since the pandemic began.

The issue of consumer fireworks was last debated in 2014 during a review of the town’s noise bylaw.

“Eight years have passed and I don’t think we have to reinvent the wheel here, but we’ve got different resources that we can refer to to see how they do it in other communities,” said Coun. Emil Olsen.

Council passed a motion asking staff to look at what other communities do and bring back recommendations for consideration.