photo by: Richard Gwin

In this file photo from July 1, 2014, John Dwyer of Lawrence, looks over the selection of fireworks at Bartz Brothers Fireworks at 1461 U.S. Highway 40.

What was intended to be a conversation on strengthening enforcement of Lawrence’s fireworks ban turned into a broader discussion Tuesday about whether the ban works and if police should even issue citations.

Lawrence resident Melinda Henderson and Brooklynne Mosley, a U.S. Air Force veteran and Lawrence VFW post commander, went to the City Commission with a request that a more concerted effort be made to enforce an existing, 14-year-old ban on fireworks. They made the request, in part, because fireworks can cause negative reactions in veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

“In 2014, I was hanging out with combat veterans, and I watched a 28-year-old veteran shake like a leaf, holding my dog, also shaking like a leaf, saying, ‘Don’t worry, I’m scared, too,'” Mosley said. “Saying we can’t do anything really isn’t acceptable, especially if there’s an ordinance already in place.”

Owners of two local fireworks stands also spoke Tuesday.

Larry Bartz, of Bartz Brothers Fireworks, asked that the ban be repealed. He said it was “making honest people criminals.” If the ban were to stand, he said, the city should no longer allow the public fireworks display put on annually by the Lawrence Jaycees.

“I think it ought to go the other way, that it be put back to the way it was,” Bartz said.

Another fireworks vendor, Jeremy Long, suggested Lawrence lift the ban during certain times over Fourth of July weekend.

“People are going to do it anyway,” he said. “I think that’s a way of controlling it better, if you gave people an outlet for it. The attitude now is, ‘We’re breaking the law anyway, so who cares when or where we do it.'”

Commissioners Lisa Larsen and Leslie Soden agreed with Long. Larsen said “having a day or so when it’s legal” may “help calm things down.”

“If we say, ‘you can do this on the Fourth,’ that might help, so it’s not happening all weekend long,” Soden added.

According to data provided by Lawrence Police Chief Tarik Khatib, dispatch receives an average 214 fireworks-related calls each year over the Fourth of July weekend. Police issue an average of nine citations each year.

Part of the problem with enforcement, Khatib said, is that many of those breaking the ban are minors, and officers can’t issue citations to them. Officers can warn minors; confiscate the fireworks; or take them to the Juvenile Detention Center for a full offense and arrest report.

Commissioner Matthew Herbert said arresting minors was “extreme.” He suggested Lawrence police be directed to only confiscate fireworks, which is less time-consuming than issuing citations.

According to the data, police currently confiscate fireworks on an average 17 occasions each Fourth of July weekend.

In response to the conversation, Henderson said: “I didn’t want a discussion on modifying the ordinance. My hope was that we could begin the process of figuring out a better way to enforce the ban.”

City commissioners directed City Manager Tom Markus and Khatib to look at the issue and present ideas. Mayor Mike Amyx also asked, at Henderson’s request, whether a small committee should be formed to make a recommendation on the ban and its enforcement.

In other business, commissioners:

• Voted unanimously to send back to the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission a request for rezoning that would allow for a professional office building in the Alvamar Country Club redevelopment. The City Commission wants the planning commission to consider whether office space should be allowed under certain conditions, such as limiting the amount of square footage to which the building could grow and the kind of offices it could house. Commissioners also asked that the planning commission determine a method to ensure the area that is currently a golf course remain a golf course.

• Unanimously approved awarding a bid for street construction surrounding the HERE Kansas apartment and retail development. Under a cost-sharing agreement with HERE developers, the city is to pay $258,439.50, and developers $1,262,351.

• Adopted ordinances changing City Commission elections from April of odd-years to November of odd-years. The ordinances also included recommendations from a subcommittee of Larsen and Herbert to move the mayoral election cycle onto the same schedule. The subcommittee decided Amyx should stay in the role of mayor until January 2017, when the City Commission will elect a new mayor.

All of the ordinances were passed unanimously, besides one changing the terms of current commissioners. Commissioner Stuart Boley said he wouldn’t approve it because he didn’t want to vote on lengthening his own term. The end date of Amyx’s, Larsen’s and Herbert’s terms were extended from April 2017 to January 2018, and Soden’s and Boley’s terms from April 2019 to January 2020.