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Pedri: No, county not headed back to yellow phase

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WILKES-BARRE &mdash; Other municipalities want to follow the city&rsquo;s lead in the campaign to repeal the state law on the sale of consumer-grade fireworks, Mayor George Brown said Thursday.
				Their interest piqued, Brown said, after he and city officials met Wednesday night with residents fed up with the noise leading up to the Fourth of July.
				&ldquo;I got a call from Edwardsville. I got a call from McAdoo, Plymouth. They want copies of the letter I did and a copy of the petition,&rdquo; Brown said, referring to the paperwork he prepared for residents to sign and send to lawmakers in Harrisburg. City Council vice chairman Tony Brooks and Linda Joseph, president of the Rolling Mill Hill Residents&rsquo; Association, prepared the petition.
				&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a grassroots groundswell, but we&rsquo;re building up momentum,&rdquo; Brown said.
				The goal is to repeal the law passed in 2017 and give municipalities the power to issue harsher penalties for violating fireworks ordinances. Brown would like to see the fine raised to $1,000, much higher than penalty capped at $100 by the state.
				By law fireworks cannot be used with 150 feet of an occupied building and on city sidewalks, streets, parks and city property, leaving very little room for them to be legally lit. Still, police received hundreds of fireworks complaints just on the holiday weekend, but issued fewer than 50 citations overall.
				It&rsquo;s difficult to catch people in the act, police said. In addition, the $100 fine doesn&rsquo;t deter people, some of whom spend 10 times as much on noisemakers that carry an 18 % sales tax and generate revenue for the state.
				There&rsquo;s also the matter of safety. Fireworks can cause injures and property damage as has been the case in the city in the past. In Scranton, a man was fatally injured in a fireworks accident on June 27.

Brown: Fireworks petitions draw regional interest