Richmond Heights council will discuss banning fireworks, opting out of state law; Belle Oaks update - cleveland.com
RICHMOND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- City Council has begun the discussion as to whether it will allow residents to set off consumer grade fireworks, as allowed by the recently passed House Bill 172, or vote to opt out of the state law and forbid their use.
HB 172 is set to go into effect July 1. It permits state residents to set off their own fireworks, but also allows municipalities to say no to fireworks. Many communities are having similar discussions as July 1 nears.
University Heights City Council, on Feb. 7, voted to ban residents’ use of firework. In doing so, University Heights followed in the footsteps of Cleveland Heights. City councils in South Euclid and Shaker Heights are discussing a ban, while University Heights Mayor Michael Dylan Brennan said he would speak with Beachwood Mayor Justin Berns about doing the same in that city.
Richmond Heights City Council’s Safety Committee met Tuesday (Feb. 15) during which it opened the conversation about possibly prohibiting fireworks. Committee Chairman and Ward 2 Councilman Frank Lentine said he “has a strong feeling against fireworks” because his wife’s cousin was killed in a commercial fireworks display accident.
“Also,” he said, ”a lot of us are animal lovers and have dogs and I know when there is loud thunder or fireworks our little dog goes running for cover. So that’s another thing we can keep in mind while we’re trying to determine what way to go.
“I think it’s going to be a nightmare no matter which way we go (ban fireworks, or not),” Lentine said, “because some places (fireworks will be) legal, and if we choose to go another way, that’s up to council. But this is not good news to me.”
Richmond Heights Police Chief Thomas Wetzel stated that the police department received 40 complaints about fireworks in 2021, with 20 of those complaints coming between July 1-5, in the midst of the Independence Day holiday week. HB 172 lists eight holidays throughout the year during which fireworks can be legally set off. They include New Year’s Eve and Day, Cinco de Mayo (May 5), Juneteenth (June 19), the weekends of Memorial and Labor days, and July 3-5.
Richmond Heights Fire Department Chief Marc Neumann provided the committee with a report on HB 172 and the fireworks issue. Council President Bobby Jordan asked Neumann his opinion on whether fireworks should be legal. Neumann told of working 30 years in firefighting in the state of Florida, where fireworks were legal, and said there was more of an issue there of people shooting firearms in the air.
“But still,” Neumann said, “I like the fact that Ohio (has been) stringent, because these are explosives and they’re dangerous and children are the demographic that’s going to get injured.” Neumann said he recently spoke to a fire chief in another Ohio county who expressed his concern over how busy police would be in attempting to enforce a ban.
Wetzel said that fireworks, in Richmond Heights, start being heard in neighborhoods in mid-June. “Generally what we have when we have these types of (fireworks) calls is four things that can happen.” Wetzel said police are sometimes unable to locate the source of a complaint, while other times, when an officer drives up, those shooting off fireworks hide them and pretend they aren’t doing anything illegal.
Most often, he said, because of the police department’s culture and belief that residents are its customers, officers advise residents of the current law forbidding fireworks and give a friendly warning (unless someone is injured).
The fourth police response would be to cite offenders, but Wetzel said that has not been done in the past two years.
“So what’s next for us in the city of Richmond Heights?” Neumann said to the committee. “It really comes down to council’s direction, and the mayor’s (Kim Thomas) direction on what direction the city wants to take.”
Neumann said that he meets regularly with other local fire chiefs and noted that 11 Heights and Hillcrest communities are leaning towards, or have, decided against allowing fireworks.
He said that there will be confusion and much media attention as July 1 draws near, as fireworks will be legal in some Ohio communities, and not in others. A ban in Richmond Heights would not include items such as sparklers or toy or trick devices that contain minute levels of combustible materials, such as snakes or glow worms, smoke devices and trick matches.
There was no motion made within the Safety Committee as to how council should proceed with the matter and a future discussion on banning fireworks has not yet been scheduled.
Belle Oaks update
Economic Development Director Brian Gleisser told council Tuesday that he spoke that day with DealPoint Merrill CEO David Frank about the mixed-use Belle Oaks development coming to the Richmond Town Square property.
DealPoint will own the sewers at Belle Oaks and, in order for it to do so DealPoint must show the county it has the financial wherewithal to maintain and repair those sewers. Negotiations with the county involve the flow of water from those sewers to county-owned sewers. “It’s a technicality -- a big one,” Gleisser said.
Gleisser said Frank told him that these negotiations could delay the demolition of the onetime Sears building at Richmond Town Square -- the first major physical step in the $200-million-plus project -- could be delayed from this spring, to summer.
In addition, Gleisser told council that construction on the Meijer store at Belle Oaks will begin in February, 2023, with a planned store opening of May, 2024.
The first Belle Oaks building to be constructed, according to the schedule DealPoint gave to the city, is expected to be the leasing center for the first phase Class A apartments planned for the northern end of the mall site. The leasing center would be built at the first phase entrance along Richmond Road, near where the mall entrance at the former Sears had been located.
‘They were talking about that (construction of the leasing center) beginning in April,” Gleisser said, “but I don’t know if that’s going to slip (back to a later time).” Gleisser said construction on the leasing building would, perhaps, not start until after demolition begins. If construction does begin in April, the leasing center would be completed in December.
The next buildings to be built, behind the leasing center, would be two apartment buildings with first-floor retail, and another apartment building featuring a large outdoor pool.
See more Sun Messenger news here.
Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.
source: https://www.cleveland.com/community/2022/02/richmond-heights-council-will-discuss-banning-fireworks-opting-out-of-state-law-belle-oaks-update.html
Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.