West Covina : March Vote on Fireworks
Voters will decide March 7 whether the city will continue to allow “safe and sane” fireworks or uphold a City Council ban on all pyrotechnics.
The council voted 3 to 2 Monday to hold a more expensive special election in March instead of suspending the moratorium until the next regularly scheduled election in April, 1990. A special election will cost between $35,000 and $40,000, roughly double what the regular election would have cost.
The referendum was forced by a handful of veterans groups, the only organizations previously allowed to sell fireworks, which gathered more than the required number of signatures from 10% of the city’s voters. The veterans had offered a compromise proposal in which they would suspend sales of sparklers until the issue was decided on the 1990 ballot.
Mayor Nancy Manners, joined by Councilmen Richard Lewis and Robert Bacon, argued that the petition signers wanted an early decision and that the issue should be settled before July 4. Councilmen Brad McFadden and Bill Tarozzi, who opposed the ban in September, said the council should accept the veterans’ proposal.
A referendum vote on La Verne’s fireworks ban will also appear on the March ballot.
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