LONG BEACH PENINSULA — The Pacific County Board of Commissioners and Long Beach City Council each adopted resolutions last week to put an advisory vote regarding the future of consumer fireworks on the peninsula on the April special election ballot.

The resolutions, approved by the two legislative bodies within a span of about four hours of each other on Feb. 21, will place non-binding measures on the April 25 special election ballot asking eligible voters in Long Beach and the unincorporated areas of the peninsula if the sale and discharge of consumer fireworks within the respective entities’ borders should be prohibited.

The resolutions needed to be approved and transmitted to the Pacific County Auditor’s Office by a deadline later that week in order to appear on the ballot.

Paul Plakinger, the county’s chief administrative officer, has said that the commissioners are looking for at least 60% voter turnout, along with 60% voting in favor of the ban, for the board to actually move ahead with adopting a ban on the peninsula. Long Beach City Administrator David Glasson said any sort of minimum level of turnout or support hasn’t been identified on the city’s part.

“In conversations that we’ve had internally here, [we] felt — before any additional action should be carried out by the [commissioners] — that we really should put this before the people to have the people weigh in and provide their input on whether or not the board should take additional action one way or another,” Plakinger said.

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‘We really should put this before the people to have the people weigh in and provide their input on whether or not the board should take additional action one way or another.’

Paul Plakinger, Pacific County chief administrative officer

Supporters and opponents of a consumer fireworks ban spoke at both of the meetings, expressing trepidation about the advisory votes. Proponents of a ban said the commissioners and councilors were elected to make these types of decisions and not kick the can back to voters, while those against a ban were wary about the role second-home owners and temporary residents might play in the advisory votes.

Only duly registered voters in the affected areas of Pacific County are eligible to vote and will see the measures on their April special election ballot, alongside other local measures like Ocean Beach Hospital’s $10 million bond proposal. For the county’s advisory vote, the measure will appear on the ballots of registered voters residing in the peninsula’s unincorporated areas north of Ilwaco city limits — such as Seaview, Klipsan Beach, Ocean Park, Surfside and Oysterville, among others. The city’s advisory vote will appear on the ballot of registered voters residing within Long Beach’s city limits.

The action comes after both the city and the county have passed restrictions on the sale and use of consumer fireworks in recent years, but have stopped short of an all-out ban. Councilors in Ilwaco, the peninsula’s other city, voted to ban consumer fireworks in December 2021, which will go into effect for the first time over the 2023 Fourth of July holiday.

Long Beach councilors were on the cusp of adopting a ban on consumer fireworks last summer, but a final vote was scrapped after the city’s inability to publish a required legal notice in time to meet a state deadline meant a ban wouldn’t go into effect until a year later than desired.

As it stands, the sale and use of consumer fireworks will be permitted for five days around the Fourth of July in Long Beach in 2023, down from the previously allowed eight days — the maximum allowed by state law. In the unincorporated areas of Pacific County, the sale of fireworks is limited to four days and discharge to three days.

Officials at both the county and city meetings last week were quick to point out that any ban they could potentially pass following the advisory vote would not affect the beach, which is state-owned land and under the jurisdiction of Washington State Parks. However, Parks officials have told the Observer during past fireworks debates in Long Beach that the agency will align itself with any laws restricting or prohibiting fireworks that the city may implement.

Long Beach officials have also said in the past that a ban would not affect the city’s professional fireworks show, which has traditionally been held on the beach each year. Likewise, Ilwaco’s ban does not affect the professional fireworks display put on at the port that is typically held on the first Saturday in July.

The Observer will have additional coverage on the advisory votes in the coming weeks, including information about the appointment of for/against committees, who will make their case to voters in the official ballot pamphlet.