Fireworks vendor asks White Pine to shrink 500-foot fuel-tank setback

Tony Bowling of Parker Fireworks asked the White Pine Town Council on April 7 to consider reducing the town's 500-foot setback requirement between fireworks sales and fuel tanks, saying the larger buffer significantly limits where he can set up his seasonal tent. "Most towns have a fifty-to-seventy-five-foot rule, but White Pine has a five hundred feet distance in their ordinance," Bowling told the council.

Bowling said his tent typically goes up around June 15 and opens about June 20, and that an employee is on site 24/7 during operations. He emphasized safety and noted that his business has had no incidents in the forty years he has been operating. A council member asked about sales tax; Bowling said the town receives sales taxes from on-site transactions.

Mayor Glen E. Warren told the vendor that ordinance changes require two readings and noted timing constraints: the ordinance will be in the council packets next month, and "the original ordinance will be in the last reading at the June meeting, if it passes on first reading in May." That schedule means any change would need to clear those readings before Bowling's tent opening if the council accelerates consideration.

Council members did not take immediate action at the meeting; Mayor Warren indicated the proposed change would appear in the packet for the next meeting and would require the standard first and second readings before any amendment could take effect. No public safety analysis, amendment language, or enforcement plan was provided during the presentation.