Great Falls City Commission sends fireworks question to fall ballot

Great Falls commissioners decided Tuesday that voters should determine whether fireworks should be banned in the city. 

The fall ballot will include a question restricting fireworks that leave the ground and those that “explode upon activation” on the ground. Smaller, so-called novelty items like smoke bombs and fountains would remain legal, as would permitted public fireworks shows.

Election Day is Nov. 4, and the fireworks question will join the ballot alongside municipal elections.

The fireworks issue became a focal point after a Great Falls woman died in a house fire July 2. Officials determined the likely cause of the fire to be fireworks set off elsewhere in the neighborhood.

In recent weeks, the Great Falls City Commission discussed fireworks over four meetings, which included two special meetings to prepare a ballot question prior to a statutory deadline. While commissioners debated whether to pass an ordinance themselves, they made their final vote Tuesday to approve the ballot question.

Commissioner Rick Tryon said that fireworks complaints fill his inbox each year and that those discussions often dissolved over time with no action to address those concerns.

“I think the best way to address those and the most appropriate way is by sending those to the ballot,” he said.

Great Falls is a relative outlier among larger Montana cities in allowing residents to set off fireworks. Missoula, Helena, Billings, Kalispell, Havre and Bozeman all have fireworks bans in place. 

Great Falls’s city code allows fireworks from July 2 through July 4 from 8 a.m. to midnight. The use of fireworks persisted within the city even during emergency drought conditions, like in 2021, when Great Falls Fire Rescue Chief Jeremy Jones described the July 4 weekend as “nuts” for his firefighters. The county enacted fire restrictions days after the holiday.

When discussing a potential ban in recent weeks, Great Falls commissioners first had to decide whether to vote on a ban themselves or send the question to residents. Early on, commissioners Susan Wolff and Joe McKenney pushed for a commission vote. Wolff ultimately voted in favor of the ballot question but said it wasn’t her preference.

On Tuesday, McKenney was the lone vote against the ballot question. He said the commission would abandon its duties as elected officials in pushing a controversial issue to voters.

“Let’s not divide the community because we’re shielding ourselves from criticism,” he said.

The issue has drummed up debate in recent commission meetings. Residents told stories of the challenges veterans face while living with PTSD and pets that need to be taken out of town during the Independence Day week.

On Tuesday, local attorney Sunday Rossberg gave an emotional account after losing her two dogs. Through tears, she said that one of her dogs violently attacked her other dog on July 4 amid the stress and sounds of exploding fireworks. Both dogs had to be put down the next day. She held up two collars at the podium in front of the commissioners.

“It would not have happened except for the degree of fireworks,” Rossberg said.

Opponents to a potential fireworks ban, most of whom work in the fireworks retail business, argued that outlawing fireworks would do little to curtail their use. Consumers could still purchase fireworks outside of city limits or from stands on one of the many county parcels of land within Great Falls.

Mike Maeder, who was a longtime fireworks wholesale dealer in Great Falls, told commissioners that bans in other cities haven’t achieved the desired results.

“Every city in Montana, including Bozeman, Missoula, Helena, all of them, are setting off fireworks just like Great Falls does, and it’s against the law,” Maeder said. “So it’s not going to do anything.”

Officials from around the state confirmed that point to some degree. Responding to an inquiry from Great Falls administrators, police officials in Havre, Missoula, Billings and Bozeman wrote in emailed comments that their departments can do little to enforce fireworks bans in their cities, although the departments work proactively to educate residents. If an officer has the time to respond to a fireworks complaint, the offender is often gone.

Great Falls commissioners also wrestled with the question of enforcement as the city’s fire and police departments have often talked about strained resources after the failed public safety levy of 2023. Great Falls Police Chief Jeff Newton told commissioners on July 15 that it comes down to call prioritization. An average of 14 officers in the field over 24 hours respond to 116 calls, some of which require multiple officers. Fireworks calls wouldn’t be high on the list.

“It comes down to resource management, allocation of resources and sending out resources to where the priorities are,” Newton said.

In another fireworks-related meeting on July 22, Fire Chief Jones called on commissioners to establish a fine that deters violations.

“Setting a fine that has an impact and sets a statement,” he said. “That, in and of itself, might curb some of the bad actors.”

In past weeks, commissioners have likened the controversy around fireworks to another local hot topic: backyard chickens. The commission sent a question to the 2017 ballot for voters to decide whether residents could keep the birds within city limits. That issue sparked local debate, but the measure failed at the polls and the chicken ban remains.

It speaks to the variety of issues that come before these elected officials, Commissioner Wolff said. But she made one distinction.

“By god, I don’t know of a chicken that killed anybody,” she said.

In-depth, independent reporting on the stories impacting your community from reporters who know your town.