(12/1) During their November 13 Borough Council meeting, Council members voted to approve an ordinance regulating fireworks within the Borough. The fireworks ordinance was enacted in response to the new law governing the purchase of fireworks in the state.

Last fall, Pennsylvania enacted a law governing the purchase of fireworks in the state. Until last year, the only fireworks Pennsylvanians could legally purchase inside the state were those of the novelty-kind such as sparklers, ground-based fireworks and trick noisemakers. Meanwhile, out-of-state residents could purchase larger fireworks such as Roman candles, firecrackers and bottle rockets in Pennsylvania. This rule changed last year with the enactment of a state law that legalized the use and sale of the "aerial types" of fireworks to state residents while imposing a twelve percent tax on those purchases as well as the state's sales tax. Additionally, according to the law, Pennsylvanians must be 18 years or older in order to purchase these fireworks, they can only be set off on private property, and they must been at least 150 feet from occupied structures.

In August, a fireworks ordinance was brought to the Council for discussion. The ordinance, at that time, would have permitted residents to use fireworks on limited days, including the day before, the day of and the day after the ten National Holidays, totaling 30 permitted calendar days per year. During those permitted days fireworks would have been prohibited from 1 a.m. - 8a.m., a resident must have had the property owner’s permission, the person must have been 18 year or older and may not have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol. If any of the above were violated, the Borough was proposing a $100 fine.

Over the course of three months, Council discussed the ordinance, and made changes. The Council, while looking to keep the rules and regulations in place during the holidays, discussed that 30 days of permissible fireworks, holidays aside, was too many. Members discussed changing the number of days to only include New Years Eve, New Years Day and Independence Day, for a total of only three days of allowable fireworks in the Borough. Consumer fireworks will be now only be allowed in the Borough from 8 a.m. on December 31 until 1 a.m. on January 1, and from 8 a.m. on July 4 until 1 a.m. on July 5. Any display fireworks will require a permit from the Borough and must be approved by the Code Enforcement Officer.

Additionally, Council discussed the fine originally associated with the violators of the ordinance, citing that the steep $100 fine was too high for a first time offense. Instead, Council settled for a graduated scale that set a $25 fine for the first offense and a $100 fine for any subsequent offenses thereafter. The new fireworks ordinance was passed unanimously, just in time for the holidays.

In other Carroll Valley news, the Borough is proud to announce that there will be no tax increase this upcoming year; the tax rate will remain 2.45 mills on each dollar of assessed value. This is the seventh year in a row the Borough has gone without a tax increase.