On June 2, the Pagosa Springs Town Council denied a permit for a private fireworks display.
The request for the permit came from John “Scott” Neal, who is having a birthday celebration for his husband on a property he owns at 210 10th Street, across from Pagosa Springs Elementary School.
Neal proposed to have a fireworks show the evening of June 6 between 8:30 and 9 p.m. as part of the event.
He explained that he had gotten permission from the school district to utilize the elementary school’s fields for the display and he had hired a professional company to put on the fireworks show.
An agenda document on the matter states that Neal had also put in an application with the fire district for a permit and for the district to provide a fire watch for the event.
He also reached out to the town’s Public Works and Police departments to close a road and provide security, the document states.
Town Manager David Harris explained that even though Neal had been granted permission from these various entities, he would still need a permit granted by the town council.
Mayor Shari Pierce suggested that she had major concerns about the fireworks portion of this event.
Her concerns had to do with the amount of town staff (police officers) to close down a road and the general fire danger and the risks.
During public comment, Eddie Archuleta, who lives near where the fireworks display would happen, also spoke out about the risks of fire from the display, asking the council, “What are you gonna do about fires … what about the noise and the neighbors?”
He asked, “You got those woods to the west, and you can’t control where those fireworks are going. What if you catch that all on fire and burn the whole ... town down?”
He added, “I’m against this and you should be against this fireworks display that’s going on,” he said.
Council member Leonard Martinez stated that, from a risk-management standpoint, “adding another fireworks display [on top of the one the town is already planning for July 4] is beyond what I’m willing to support.”
He added, “This is too much risk for us to absorb.”
Council member Mat deGraaf asked if the council deems it too risky to grant the permit for this fireworks display, then how could it justify holding its own fireworks on July 4?
“If the fire chief signs off on it and says he’s comfortable with it and we’ll have the equipment necessary to mitigate the risk and our police chief says he’s OK with it … I’m happy to move forward with it,” he said.
Council member Gary Williams replied that the town’s display is still contingent on fire danger at that time and the contract with the display company allows the town to postpone the display until later in the year.
He said that he was “impressed with the amount of work the applicant put in, but the benefit-versus-risk ratio is way off, in my opinion. We are one fire away from total disaster here in this town,” he said, adding, “I’m reluctantly against granting the permit.”
When a motion was made to deny the permit, it was supported by Pierce, Williams and Martinez, with deGraaf voting against the motion.
Council member Madeline Bergon was absent for the vote.
“Moving forward, we need to be particularly cautious about fire danger in this town,” Williams said.
derek@pagosasun.com
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