Young Rocketeer Starts a Countdown : Government: After an address by boy, 12, City Council votes to write an ordinance permitting the hobby inside city limits.

Flame-spewing, unguided model rockets used to be illegal in this tinder-dry town--until 4-H leader Dan Burke and 12-year-old Kevin Graves summoned the gumption to ask the Simi Valley City Council for a change in the law.

*

Kevin wrote out what he wanted to say, then delivered his brief speech to the council on Monday night:

“Maybe you can help us launch in Simi Valley,” the seventh-grader suggested gently, his nervous voice barely audible over the sound system. “I have built a rocket, and I don’t know where to launch it.”

To Kevin’s and Burke’s surprise, council members quickly agreed that state fire laws, not city code, should govern model rocketry in Simi Valley.

The council voted 5 to 0 on a first reading to throw out the city ordinance that labels model rockets as dangerous firearms and to write an ordinance specifically allowing the hobby inside city limits. A second-reading approval in a few weeks would seal the change.

And that would throw the burden of regulating model rocketry onto the Ventura County Fire Department, which requires enthusiasts in all Ventura County cities to get landowners’ permission, obey safety laws and obtain a department permit to launch.

With one small step to the City Council podium, Burke and his young charge had taken a giant leap for Simi Valley’s would-be rocketeers.

“I was very proud of him,” Burke said of Kevin, who has been a member of the Tapo-Simi 4-H Club for four years. “I wanted to get somebody up there, one of the kids up there to talk to the council, and he agreed to do it.”

The speech also taught Kevin a lesson in civics, Burke said. “I think it’s good experience for him also as far as learning communications skills--and he gets introduced to how the government works.”

For his part, Kevin says he is glad he can join other 4-H rocketeers soon and fire his first rocket--a black and yellow Estes Yellowjacket--toward the clouds.

But it won’t be a first for the club. And it is far from a done deal.

The 4-H Club launched rockets regularly from the field at Valley View Junior High School until about two years ago, when the club’s insurance agent learned of the city law and forbade it, Burke said.

“They have to OK everything we do,” he said.

Burke said he had no luck finding a private launch site in Simi Valley, so he approached the city attorney’s office about a year ago to see if the law could be changed. Then he asked Councilwoman Sandi Webb how to get the item on the agenda. And finally, he buttonholed Kevin into coming down and helping him plead the club’s case.

Kevin agreed, hoping the council would listen.

When he stepped to the podium, he said, “I was nervous, just a little bit, not much.” Even if the council said no, he reasoned, “at least I’d just know that I tried.”

Once the council gives final approval to rewriting the city code, the 4-H Club must still get permission from the Simi Valley Unified School District, then secure the insurer’s OK and the county Fire Department permits, Burke said.

But Kevin is raring to go.

He spent more than two weeks laboring over his 18-inch Yellowjacket with knife and glue, whipping up a sleek, shiny projectile that won first place at the Ventura County Fair.

Now all he wants is to be able to slide the shotgun-shell-shaped motor into its base, wire it up to a pair of double-A batteries and back off 25 feet. Then he will let it rip hundreds of feet into the air, where its nose-cone parachute will pop out and carry it back to earth so he can prepare it for the next mission.

Kevin’s father, Michael, said he is proud of his son for standing up before the council.

“I’m kinda glad,” he said. “I’m amazed that it went so smooth.”