Ordinance Committee recommends limiting Mount Pleasant fireworks to state-protected dates

The Ordinance Committee of Mount Pleasant City met June 24 and voted to recommend amending the city's fireworks ordinance to remove the locally permitted season of June 21 through July 6 and to limit permitted discharge to the dates protected by state law: July 3, July 4 and New Year's Eve. The Committee met at 4:00 p.m.; the recommendation was recorded as a majority vote with Kent White and Bob Griffith voting in favor and Terry McWilliams opposed. Other individual votes were not specified in the minutes.

Committee discussion cited resident complaints about the length of the local fireworks season and noted a change in Iowa law effective July 1, 2026, that bars municipalities from prohibiting or restricting the discharge of consumer fireworks on the three protected dates and from setting local time restrictions for those dates. City staff framed the action as aligning local ordinance with the new state constraints while responding to neighborhood concerns. The minutes state that, because state law prevents municipalities from restricting hours on the protected dates, the Committee did not adopt time-of-day limits for July 3, July 4 or New Year's Eve.

Next steps in the process were not specified in the minutes. The Committee's recommendation is a formal advisory action that typically proceeds to full council consideration; the minutes do not record a council adoption date or any implementation timeline.