LONG BEACH — As the calendar turns from spring to summer and June gets ready to give way to July, it perhaps comes as little surprise that fireworks have wiggled their way back into the news.

The issue was back in front of the Long Beach City Council at a June 16 workshop, after city officials realized that recent discussions with a state agency about where city limits end on the beach had implications for Long Beach’s fireworks ban that was passed back in 2023.

Where’s the line?

In relation to the maintenance of the Bolstad and Sid Snyder beach approaches, which the state pays the city to maintain and keep open, Glasson said Long Beach and Washington State Parks have “gone back and forth” over where the city’s western boundary is. It had most recently been understood to be the grass line on the primary dune for the past 10 or so years, but is now understood to be the mean high water line — or high tide.

The problem? The high water line is a moving target and can change depending on the day or as the years go by.

“Everybody who lives here knows that in the summers the beach builds up in elevation, and the water stays mostly on that side of the dry sand line,” said Glasson. “In the winter, you have erosion and the tide comes in further. So depending on what day you’re at — and where you’re at — that mean high tide line moves…they don’t draw them in the sand, we don’t know where they’re at.”

Who enforces the ban?

This change to the recent status quo has Long Beach Police Chief Flint Wright questioning how his department should enforce Long Beach’s fireworks ban that first went into effect last year, which bans the sale and use of all consumer fireworks within city limits. Both Long Beach and Ilwaco, which LBPD also provides coverage for, have banned the sale and use of consumer fireworks in recent years, although fireworks are allowed to be lit off in unincorporated areas of Pacific County from July 2-4.

More specifically, Wright is concerned about the sandy areas of the beach west of the grass line, which had been left open for the use of legal consumer fireworks because that was previously understood by Long Beach and state parks to be beyond the western edge of city limits.

“To be honest with you, you can have all the good intentions that you want… but I’m telling you, if you send officers out there to say ‘you can’t shoot those fireworks,’ you’re going to have fights,” Wright bluntly told councilors at last week’s workshop. “You’re going to have problems, and I’m not putting my officers at risk over a firework. It’s not going to happen.”

Following discussions with state parks officials, Wright said parks officers will continue with providing the primary coverage and responding to calls in the sandy areas west of the grass line, with LBPD providing backup and assistance as it long has.

Two options

As it relates to fireworks, Glasson presented the mayor and council with two options to consider long-term: Immediately continue with a strict fireworks ban inside the entirety of city limits, which includes this new sand area; or adjust the area where fireworks are restricted to a mostly stationary line, such as the grass line, and set a period for when fireworks can be lit off in the sand area west of that line.

Glasson said he personally favored the second option, which would essentially continue with the status quo in the interim. Since it wouldn’t be a new restriction and would technically relax Long Beach’s fireworks rules, it could immediately go into effect rather than having to endure a one-year waiting period.

Speaking for his department, Wright said it wouldn’t be fair to essentially thrust additional fireworks restrictions for his officers to have to enforce just a few weeks before the Fourth of July weekend — especially in the beach area near and between the Bolstad and Sid Snyder approaches, which draws thousands of people who, to the best of their knowledge, believe they’re allowed to light off fireworks.

Grace period

If the council decides that they indeed would like to extend the fireworks ban to cover the sand west of the grass line, Wright believes there should be a grace period in terms of enforcement so the public can be educated on the changes.

“If we’re gonna close it — and I’m not taking a stand one way or the other [on fireworks restrictions in general] — but you’ve got to do it in some steps,” said Wright. “If you want to do it next year, I would put a readerboard up and say ‘Hey, next year, FYI, within these boundaries there will not be fireworks allowed,’ if that’s the direction you want to take…There’s a way to do it, but you’ve got to give them a chance to comply and to know it’s coming.”

Councilors indicated at the workshop that they were not in favor of LBPD and partner agencies trying to enforce the fireworks ban this year in the sandy areas west of the grass line, but that fires or fireworks should not be lit within 100 feet of the dunes to combat against the threat of incidental grass fires. A readerboard will be used as part of the push to get the word out about the 100-foot buffer zone.

Outside of this swath of beach in question, councilors also said that they had no desire to revisit the citywide fireworks ban that the council passed in 2023, which came after Long Beach residents voted 53.5% in favor of a ban in a non-binding election that spring.