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Chico City Council Tables Proposal To Lift Longstanding Fireworks Ban

Chuck Brown
/
Flickr,

 

There was plenty in terms of local issues and discussion, but little in the way of resolution at last night’s Chico City Council meeting.

In one hotly debated topic, the council ended up unanimously tabling a proposal seeking to lift the city’s longstanding ban on fireworks. The proposal was made by Councilman Andrew Coolidge. 

Coolidge, backed by a spokesman for a fireworks distributor, urged his colleagues to allow certain small-scale fireworks. Coolidge and Dennis Ravel, representing a distributor, pitched fireworks sales as an attractive fundraising opportunity for local nonprofit groups. Chico has sharply reduced how much it grants to local nonprofit groups in recent years.

While representatives of several groups potentially benefiting spoke in favor of Coolidge’s plan, longtime resident Michael Reilley said careless lighting of fireworks caused a raging conflagration in Chico’s beloved Upper Bidwell Park in 1963. Questions were raised about other risks and how much such sales would actually generate. 

Ultimately, it was decided that there simply wasn’t enough time to properly weigh risks and approve an ordinance in time for Independence Day. The issue will likely be reconsidered at the end of the year.

In another long-running topic, the council decided to tentatively move ahead with a process that could ultimately allow a controversial scrap yard and metal recycler to remain in perpetuity. 

Investigators from the state department of Toxic Substances Control found elevated levels of cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyl or PCBs along with lead and various other heavy metals on the property. The site is adjacent to residential homes and is within 500 feet of the elementary school serving a mainly low-income neighborhood. State regulators said the company is working under a consent decree to clean up the site. State officials are currently reviewing a remediation plan. The council’s action will enable the firm to propose and negotiate changes in operation and management of the property, along with façade improvements with the city. 

The council also discussed a proposal by city administrators to bring order to the city’s chaotic property leases. Deputy City Manager Chris Constantine said he was still wading through 600 pages of leases with various entities, with rental charges, terms and conditions seeming to follow no rhyme or reason. Constantine said some entities are paying market rates and others only token amounts. The council told city administrators to develop a fair system. Constantine said the council could not intervene in a rental dispute between the Chico Art Center, which the city leases property to, and the center’s tenant, which operates a coffee shop in a historic railway dining car. 

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