Yesterday, County Judge Nelson Wolff signed a disaster declaration prohibiting fireworks use and sale for this season once approved and extended by the Governor of Texas. No, they’re not rolling out the national guard or preparing for a hurricane: the “disaster” is dryness. We’ll see what other counties follow suit in the coming weeks and post back as to where and when we’ll be open in South Texas and the San Antonio area.
Hopefully, we’ll be able to work with the other counties and the anti-fireworks campaign led by Danny Scheel and Wolff won’t shut the whole region down. While no one argues it’s too dry to use fireworks in the “wild”, we had proposed workable and viable solutions around Safe Shooting Areas. We had data showing they worked in past seasons in Bexar and other counties. But, as my mom used to say, “you can bring a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.” What’s sad is that Wolff never even seemed to truly listen to what we had to say and his mind was made up back in October.
For those San Antonio fireworks fans, we hope you’ll visit us elsewhere. We’ll be back in the Spring though minus a good amount of our staff. Then again, it might just rain but we’re not holding our breath.
In the meantime, trust that we’ll be working to get this law fixed in the Texas Legislature. In no other business can one individual (a county judge) sign a single piece of paper at any time and shut down a legal, regulated industry. Even fire officials I speak with agree that’s just not right.
This entry was posted on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 12:21 am and is filed under Legal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
December 12th, 2008 at 3:50 am
this sucks i dont think this should happen its always gonna be dry here in san antonio so what are they just gonna ban them every year. people will still get there fire works and so will i
December 13th, 2008 at 1:26 am
Every year I always buy fireworks and up to this moment its like it became a tradition with the whole family. We all even prepare what to buy and what to get a month before (thats how important it is)and I cant beleive whats going to happen now,I understand about the dryness but banning LEAGAL fireworks..something has to happen,I am praying for rain and hope they will remove the bann…
December 13th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
same here….we save the whole year JUST FOR FIREWORKS…..and yall lose money because yall are not selling enough fireworks…you should at least be able to sell groung fireworks?!?!?!?!?!?!?…i hate when people don’t listen to you!….sorry for saying yall..i live in texas
December 13th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Every year everyone pops fireworks ! Is the base gonna get to pop fireworks? That would suck if they cant and we dont? Its bad enough that the city bans them, now the county!
December 16th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
i just wanted to know in what counties will you guys be open in because i live in san antonio and as you know bexar county has banned all sales of fireworks that sucks!!!! but i’m still going to buy them and bring them into bexar county and you please post up in what counties you will be selling fireworks thanks for making the best and most afforable fireworks in texas!!!!!!
December 28th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
I think that it sucks… I do not what the difference is.. because it is dry in July as well and people pop fireworks….everywhere and even at parks…. It just ruins everything… That is something that my children enjoy !!!!! I hope for the BAN to be lifted……..