With less than 100 days left before Independence Day celebrations kick off in Kitsap County, some city leaders in Port Orchard are looking to reignite the debate on a potential ban of the sale and use of commercial fireworks.

The City Council considered such an ordinance two years ago. If the law passed, it would have made Port Orchard the second city in Kitsap to ban fireworks within city limits. Councilmembers voted 5-2 against the ban, citing an extreme lack of public feedback and challenges with enforcing such a law, among other concerns.

Councilmember Jay Rosapepe voted for the ban, and his stance has remained as strong as before. The issues “are all small incrementally, but when you add them all up together, it gets to be pretty significant,” he said.

Recalling what he called a “mess of a city” after Port Orchard’s 4th of July festivities in 2023, he is preparing to make his stance against consumer fireworks clear once again at the council’s work-study in May after it was presented on the April agenda but delayed. A ban would have to pass prior to July 4 this year for it to go into effect in 2025.

The issue, Rosapepe added, still does not concern public displays such as the one on Sinclair Inlet or the Bremerton Bridge Blast. It is for what he called the harmful elements brought about by consumer fireworks. “We have enough (displays) that folks can see fireworks,” he said. “It’s a question of the individual fireworks and are they doing more harm than good at this point.”

That harm, he said, includes environmental health such as an increase in fire danger as well as the mental stress certain people and household pets can suffer from. Specifically, Rosapepe noted his conversations with veterans. “I do have concerns talking to some of the folks with some of the information I’ve had about PTSD.”

The windows of where and for how long personal fireworks can be bought and used is continuing to close. Consumer fireworks were permanently banned on Bainbridge Island in 2019, and lawmakers passed a ban on commercial fireworks in Gig Harbor that went into effect last year.

Some wonder if the new considerations will spark a larger response from the community in either direction. Councilmember Scott Diener said he hopes it will. “The testimony we got before was from those who responded largely out of commercial interest,” Diener said. “It would be great to hear more from people who have a personal or residential interest, and so I hope we can hear from both sides of the spectrum and just not those whose concern is monetary.”

Roughly two out of three respondents to a 2022 survey conducted by the city supported a ban. Diener said he sides with the majority, but when it comes to a vote on a law, he is waiting to see what comes of May’s discussion. “Nobody’s made any real commitment one way or the other as far as I know,” he said. “I think we’re just waiting to hear what people say and waiting to learn more.”

One of the newly elected members of the council wonders if such a decision to ban would be proper. Councilman Eric Worden is set on his own distaste of fireworks and says he and his wife will typically be at home because of their dog.

“But that’s me,” he said. “I’m just really torn with taking that away from people, even though like I stated, I’m adamantly against them for my own family.”