By Cody Boteler
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
The Baltimore County Council is considering a bill that would require anyone putting on a private firework display to give neighbors within a certain distance advanced notice of the event.
The bill, which was proposed by Council member Wade Kach, would not interfere with public firework displays.
As it stands, the bill would require anyone putting on a private display to notify neighbors whose nearest property line is within 1,500 feet of the planned show by certified mail at least three weeks prior.
First-time violators are subject to a fine not exceeding $250 if convicted under the proposed legislation. Subsequent offenders could face a fine as high as $1,000.
Francis Smith, who breeds and sells horses in northern Baltimore County, testified during the council’s working session this week that she’d like to see the bill expanded so the radius of notice goes beyond the 1,500-foot rule.
Residents proposed the bill to Kach after a neighbor brought in “professional level” fireworks displays to celebrate Independence Day.
Smith said that the sounds from the display scared her horses and caused them to panic.
Ellen Seward, a horse owner who lives closer to the property where the fireworks were set off, said in her testimony that two of her horses were injured during the display. One horse was kicked by another that had panicked, and subsequently lost an important front tooth.
One horse, which already had some issues with its foot, got itself twisted and severely damaged its horseshoe and hoof, she said.
Seward said that the hoof now requires frequent attention. There’s a large, fiberglass patch on the missing part of the hoof.
“She sees the farrier at least once a month,” Seward said. “And it’s really expensive.”
Smith also said that she’d like to see some sort of official presence to help direct traffic after any of these private displays.
Smith said that when she went to investigate where fireworks were coming from one night, she encountered a “bank of smoke.”
“The only thing I could see was the hood of my car,” Smith said.
Smith said she was worried that people driving would not be able to see and would collide with each other or run off the road.
Seward and Smith both indicated that they don’t want to see any measures that are punitive, but that they’d like people to be “neighborly” and be able to properly prepare for large fireworks displays.
Nobody at the working session testified in opposition to the proposed bill.