When the Perry City Council passed the City’s fireworks ordinance at the beginning of June, they knew it was by no means a finished product.

City Administrator Sven Peterson explains, “The state passed this pretty quickly, and we had to shuffle and get something passed. It wasn’t perfect the first go-around, but it’s certainly something that we’re going to revisit and fine-tune until we find something that works.”

At their most recent meeting, the Council discussed how the citizens and law enforcement handled it. According to Police Chief Eric Vaughn, between June 1st and July 4th, the department received 56 calls about fireworks being used illegally. That marked a 107% increase from the 27 calls they received last year over the same time frame. They didn’t issue any citations, but did give out 22 warnings and gave offenders a copy of the ordinance.

Perry was one of the few cities in central Iowa that actually allowed fireworks to be used at all. Most cities, like Jefferson, Guthrie Center, and Stuart, maintained a ban on fireworks use in city limits. At this point, the Perry Council is unsure if they will continue to allow fireworks in the future, though State Senator Jake Chapman is still trying to revise the law to give cities less wiggle room.

Peterson explains, “Another thing to keep in mind is that it’s already been stated by Senator Chapman that they’re going to be going back and revisiting this issue the next legislative session. So it’s almost a wait-and-see what they do, and then we can react back to that again. It’s all this kind of a working together back and forth with the state, and figuring out the best way to go about things.”

The current Perry fireworks ordinance only allows for them to be used on July 4th. For more information about this and other City of Perry topics, listen to Tuesday’s Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County Program at RaccoonValleyRadio.com.