Pay $25 for a permit or risk arrest and $10,000 fine BY DENNIS WILKEN TGI Staff Writer A Kaua`i Police Department special team has been assembled to enforce the new fireworks laws this New Year’s Eve. Fines for possession or
Pay $25 for a permit or risk arrest and $10,000 fine
BY DENNIS
WILKEN
TGI Staff Writer
A Kaua`i Police Department special team has
been assembled to enforce the new fireworks laws this New Year’s Eve.
Fines
for possession or use of firecrackers without a legitimate permit can be as
high as $10,000 due to the recently toughened state statute.
The new fines
for possession of illegal fireworks are:
l A fine up to $2,000 and one year
of incarceration for less than 25 pounds, a misdemeanor.
l Up to a $10,000
fine and five years incarceration for more than 25 pounds, a felony.
“Our
objective is to uphold the law and keep people safe,” police chief George
Freitas said.
The special police fireworks unit will patrol all five
districts on the island, inspecting permits and confiscating illegal
fireworks.
“People need to understand that there will be officers out there
specially assigned to this on New Year’s Eve. And they won’t be pulled off for
other things,” said Beth Tokioka, county spokeswoman.
The Kaua`i Fire
Department was issuing permits today until 6 p.m. and will continue Saturday
from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Treasury Division of the Department of Motor
Vehicles, located in the Kapule Building of Lihu`e Civic Center.
As of
Wednesday, slightly more than 30 permits had been issued, according to
officials.
One of the few Kaua’i retailers selling firecrackers, because of
the stringent new law, is Big Save Inc.
“We cut our order a good 75
percent. For us, it was a good, profitable item” before this year’s permit
process was instituted, said Wesley Park, Big Save’s vice president of sales
and operations.
Park pointed out that a 20,000 packet containing
approximately 4,900 fireworks retails for $10. But adding the newly required
permit drives a small purchase to a $35 minimum.
“With the permit, it makes
it difficult to purchase (enough) fireworks. It’s not worth the consumer’s
while,” Park said.
He said regulation of fireworks has gone back and forth
between the state and the county for the past few decades.
Years ago, when
each county regulated its own fireworks, “there was a total ban on Oahu. And
still there were fireworks everywhere, the illegals,” Park said.
He
speculated that the once-thriving trade in illegal aerial fireworks will now
switch to the smaller, legal fireworks because of the cost increases associated
with the permits.
Contrary to earlier reports, there will be no additional
county-operated permit stations over the New Year’s weekend.
Anyone seeking
a firecracker-purchase permit may pick up an application at any fire station,
the civic center or the Council Services office on the second floor of Historic
County Building on Rice Street.
The extended hours at the Treasury Division
are solely to accommodate the purchase of firecracker permits. Other division
business will not be conducted during the special extended hours, officials
said.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252)
and dwilken@pulitzer.net
Staff Photo by Dennis Fujimoto
Pacific
Fireworks’ Erika Kleinfeld of Ohio shows off a string of firecrackers that
needs a permit before anyone over 18 years of age can purchase them. The
permit, which is secured through the county, limits purchases to 5,000
firecrackers per permit. The store, which opened in Kukui Grove Thursday, will
be selling pyrotechnics through New Year’s Eve.
