San Antonio Fireworks Buyers Guide - Spring 2009

You can buy fireworks at any of the locations in Bexar County/San Antonio listed on our website here:

San Antonio Fireworks Locations Open Spring 2009

This season, any item that shoots or flies more than 16 feet in the air is prohibited. In addition, you are only allowed to use them in the Safe Areas:

Fireworks Shooter’s Sites

However, you can get a full line of product at the following locations in the area.  (Please note these are the reloadable, artillery shells, roman candles, and cakes not permitted in Bexar this season)

West San Antonio:

Medina County - Hwy 90 (Drive 5 miles past existing stands on Hwy 90)

North San Antonio:

Drive to Bandera, TX (15 miles from Helotes)

South/East San Antonio:

Hwy 16 South in Atascosa County, TX

Hwy 281 South in Atascosa County, TX

Texas Fireworks Industry 2009 Legislative Session Recap & Outlook

Michael Girdley, Alamo Fireworks, Inc. Michael at sign alamofireworks.com 6/9/09

Executive Summary:

  • No substantial legislation passed either in favor or against consumer fireworks.
  • Industry worked well to kill anti-fireworks legislation.
  • Industry must have one voice through one association to stay in business

Status Quo Maintained

Entering the 2009 legislative session, the different fireworks constituents had different priorities.  East Texas vendor priorities centered on Harris County regulating fireworks out business through building codes and Houston Limited Purpose Annexations (LPAs).  West Texas vendors wanted to repair the disaster powers added in a back-room, late night conference committee in 2007 and fix the transportation issues.  In the Valley, the dominant vendor wanted to deal with annexation of permanent stores by municipalities.

The counties wanted expanded powers for disaster declarations, building codes, and other regulation of fireworks including outright prohibition at their discretion.  In the end, both sides stopped the process and no bills became law.

Industry Efforts Stop Anti-Fireworks Bills

Our three main lobbyists and the fireworks people did a fine job of killing anti-fireworks bills.  It is worth noting that no anti-fireworks bills progressed out of either chamber of the House and many never left committees.  At one point, a floor amendment to a house bill by Rep. Quintanilla was removed when members recalled the bill after it had already passed the house .  The only two bills to leave the House were both positive bills, Rep Smith’s transportation bill being the most notable.  No anti-fireworks bills even reached the Senate floor.

Industry Fragmentation Led to Failure

There are two major fireworks associations:  the Texas Pyrotechnic Association (TPA) comprised of larger and mostly West Texas vendors and the Texas Fireworks Association (TFA), comprised of many smaller and a few large fireworks vendors with a few exceptions on each side.  In addition, there are many vendors and manufacturers not involved in either association.  My company, Alamo Fireworks, hired our own independent lobbyist and pursued our agenda.

It’s impossible in our current state of fragmentation to negotiate anything with counties.  Legislators receive mixed messages and won’t act if they will fear a dissenting voice from another vendor.  A legislator must have industry consensus to do battle with the Association of County Judges and/or the Association of Urban Counties.  Here’s an excerpt of an email from Don Lee on 5/23/09, the lead lobbyist for the Council of Urban Counties:

“I will point out that the fireworks industry, much like counties, is a multi-headed lobby that rarely agrees on the same things. I cannot even keep track of the various fireworks associations and separate lobbyist. Even if you, Jim (Allison, the lobbyist for the Texas County Judges Association) and I were to reach agreement on something it would not include all of the industry and would likely immediately come under attack and attempts to change it.”

Passing laws is very tough in Texas and nothing will be accomplished while we are fragmented.  The TFA, TPA and all the independent vendors must unite into a single association with a single voice.  Even if some members disagree on particular issues we have to stop infighting and keeping secrets.  This is imperative if we hope to stay in business and the only way we’re going to stay in business is through legislative changes.

As I write this today, Bexar County is talking disaster declaration and our KBDI is at 533, which does not even qualify as a drought under Texas Statutes.  Even if your region will never suffer high fire danger, this concerns you.  If companies like Mr. W, Alamo, American and TNT go out of business in West Texas, the industry as a whole will eventually die without us defending our industry in Austin.  If the counties find drought as the means to get rid of us, they’ll use building codes or something else to run you out of business.

A Good Fireworks Bill Passes the House

A sensible and good fireworks bill passed the Texas House today.  Rep Wayne Smith introduced a bill that would allow the transport of fireworks through municipalities provided they are in their original and unopened packaging:

http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/81R/billtext/html/HB01727H.htm

This will curtail much of the harrassment fireworks fans suffer from cities.  Corpus Christi, Texas is infamous for confiscating fireworks shipments travelling through their city.  El Paso and other towns create “blockades” to prevent fireworks from passing through town.

On to the Senate!

Good things are happening and it’s raining!

Texas County Affairs Fireworks Hearing Notes

Thanks to everyone who participated reaching out to the members of the County Affairs committee last week.  At this point in the session, a phone call or fax from a voter means much more than anything I or a fireman can say at a hearing.

The hearing on Monday got started late (yea, a shocker).  In the House committees, it is standard practice to hear all bills in a given week and then vote on them at the beginning of the next week’s hearing.  So, the meeting began with all of the members in attendance, voting on the bills from the previous week.  After that, they began the actual hearing and many members departed.

You can see the video here:

http://www.house.state.tx.us/committees/broadcasts.php?session=81&committeeCode=210

On a positive note, you can see the members not really buying that counties should be able to ban fireworks any time they think there’s a “disaster” with no process and no advance notice.  One county judge testified that he wanted more “local control.”  That argument does not go well with these members.

We, the industry, did a great job of pointing out two factors with fireworks:

1) Counties don’t know what causes fires in Texas.  70% of grassfires are from unknown causes.
2) Fireworks cause less than 1% of fires in our state each year.

The “usual suspects” of fireworks haters were there:  Mike Montgomery from Harris, the Midland, Bexar and Denton fire marshals.  Comal took the cake with 5 salaried or elected officials there.  I am glad I don’t pay taxes in their county.  Bexar was a close second with 2.

Rep Lucio III from the Valley was impressive during his bill discussion.  The good thing about his bill is that the fireworks people in large don’t like it and the counties really hate it.  That’s often the start of a good compromise.

I had to leave about 6pm, so I didn’t catch the end of the hearing.  Over the next week, we’ll continue to see what develops as the capitol office gets worked.  We’ll keep you posted.  Good news is that the session is 5 weeks from over.  Bad news is that unless we fix the disaster declaration situation, this session will be a failure for those of us in all areas except for the greenest parts of the state.

Nevada / Pahrump Fireworks Shooter’s Site Upgrade

The Nye County (Nevada) Commissioners just passed a new ordinance unanimously for our Shooter’s Site in Nevada and 40 miles outside of Pahrump, NV. Southern California and Nevada fireworks fans now have a place to buy and shoot fireworks legally.

Our Shooter’s Site is now available year round for small groups (<10) while our store is open. Larger shoots require us to notify the fire dept but we can do them any time. We’ll welcome fireworks shoots for any larger groups, just call us to set it up.  The Site may only be used while we are open and you are under supervision of our staff on duty.

We do charge a $4 admission fee, portions of which get donated to the Amargosa volunteer fire department.

Thanks to everyone who wrote and called and emailed and faxed to get this done over the past 8 months.  Any questions, please call our Amargosa Valley, Nevada store.

We’ve also upgraded the site with signange and a permanent fence.

Texas House County Affairs: Help Defeat Anti-Fireworks Bills

We need your help to defeat most of these anti-fireworks bills to be heard on Monday in the Texas House County Affairs Committee!  Any calls need to be made TOMORROW Friday the 17th, 2009!

http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/81R/schedules/html/C2102009042014001.htm

WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Call or Fax the representatives on the committee.  Ask your friends, operators and co-workers to call and fax as well.  Do not fax multiple copies of the same letter repeatedly.  One personal letter is equivalent to a hundred photocopies.

Suggested message: These Anti-Fireworks bills are designed solely to run the small businesspeople and fundraising non-profits and families out of business.  You’re against these anti-fireworks bills but support HB 4625 (Lucio) and HB 499 (Hughes).

(4625 covers how counties may deal with drought.  More detail below on this one.  499 allows fireworks sales for Texas Independence Day.)

You can also attend and register to speak.  Or, just register against the bills.  Groups, operators, employees — all welcome.  The county will have a ton of (salaried) people paid to be there.  We need to be out in force!

WHOM TO CONTACT:
Representative Garnet Coleman (Chair)
(512) 463-0524
(512) 463-1260 Fax

Representative Geanie Morrison (Vice-Chair)
(512) 463-0456
(512) 476-3933 Fax

Representative Leo Berman
(512) 463-0584
(512) 463-3217 Fax

Representative Valinda Bolton
(512) 463-0652
(512) 463-0565 Fax

Representative Joaquin Castro
(512) 463-0669
(512) 463-5074 Fax

Representative John E. Davis
(512) 463-0734
(512) 479-6955 Fax

Representative Marisa Marquez
(512) 463-0638
(512) 463-8908 Fax

Representative Ralph Sheffield
(512)463-0630
(512)322-9054 Fax

Representative Wayne Smith
(512) 463-0733
(512) 463-1323 Fax

ABOUT HB 4625 (Lucio):
The originally posted version of this bill has been changed to be more in line with the fireworks industry wishes. A committee substitute is expected to be introduced at the meeting on Monday.  We don’t see the final version until it’s back from legislative counsel.

This bill does a bunch of things but highlights:
* Deletes 418.108i (the disaster provision that’s closing us now).
* Increases the KBDI number for a flying firework ban (stick rockets, missilies and helicopter items) to 630.  (We the removal of pop rockets from the market, we can raise this number.)  They can only ban the sale of stick rockets and flying items above 630 KBDI — nothing else.
* Allows the county to restrict fireworks use in times of drought (>630) to barren areas with no “fuel” for fire.  Right now, someone can be shooting a roman candle into a field of dry grass and the county can’t write them a ticket.
* The bill requires a County Commissioner Court meeting take place in order to place a restriction on the sale and use of fireworks.  Current law does not require a meeting and the sole decision on whether or not to shut down an industry is left to the discretion of the County Judge.  They have to do any actions 30 days prior to our opening and their restrictions can last for 60 days or until the KBDI is down below 630.

Thanks for your help!

Texas House Fireworks Hearing Monday 4/20/2009 2pm

The Texas House of Representatives County Affairs Committee is meeting on Monday to consider some of the proposed fireworks bills:

http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/81R/schedules/html/C2102009042014001.htm

ALL are invited to attend and speak.  The more, the merrier!

I’ll be doing a follow on post with my thoughts on these bills and a request to make phone calls/faxes.

(Cliffnotes: we hate most of them.  ;-))

Success on SB 1390!

SB 1390 is stopped in committee.  If they’d have taken a vote, we guess it was going to be 4-1 against.  Many of the committee members are disappointed in the county folks, so that’s a good thing.

Here’s an audio brief of the hearing.  It’s broken into two parts:

http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/senate/commit/c520/c520.htm

Thanks to everyone for help on this one. Trust me, this is just the first of many so I’ll keep you posted on developments!  There are about a dozen anti-fireworks bills on tap (and two pro-fireworks bills).

MG

Help Kill Texas Senate Bill 1390 on Fireworks

If you have a phone and a Texas address, we ask that you make phone calls to help kill SB 1390. This bill would allow the counties to bypass the governor’s extension when banning fireworks.  Please, Texas residents only.

Now is the time to make phone calls to the Senators on the IGR committee asking them to vote NO on SB 1390, which is the one being heard on Weds. WE NEED YOUR HELP TO MAKE PHONE CALLS ON TUESDAY 3/31/2009! That’s our only day.

Please call them and politely ask their offices to vote NO on SB 1390 when it’s heard on Wednesday. They’ll ask your name and address. Give it to them.

Please ask your people, operators, friends, frenemies, family to do it as well.

The Honorable Royce West
P.O. Box 12068
Capitol Station
Austin, Texas 78711
(512) 463-0123
(512) 463-0299 fax

The Honorable Mario Gallegos
P.O. Box 12068
Capitol Station
Austin, Texas 78711
(512) 463-0106
fax: (512) 463-0346

The Honorable Dan Patrick
P.O. Box 12068
Capitol Station
Austin, Texas 78711
(512) 463-0107
(512) 463-8810 (Fax)

Here’s a link to the bill text and info on the legislature website:

http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=81R&Bill=SB1390

Any questions, please don’t hesitate to call our offices.

Alamo

FAQ: Do you sell fireworks for Cinco De Mayo in Texas?

Q: Do you sell fireworks for Cinco De Mayo in Texas?

A: State Law allows fireworks sales for Cinco De Mayo for a shortened selling season.  According to the Texas State law on fireworks:

“beginning May 1 and ending at midnight on May 5 if the fireworks are sold at a location that is not more than 100 miles from the Texas-Mexico border and that is in a county in which the commissioners court of the county has approved the sale of fireworks during the period.”

While we do sell within 100 miles of the border, few counties actively approved fireworks sales in the recent past.  If something changes where we’ll open, we’ll post on this website ASAP.