Team's 2006 fireworks approved (Md.)

[PyroBubba]

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1105/281787.html

Hagerstown Council Approves Suns' Fireworks Schedule

Nov. 30, 2005

Hagerstown, Md. (AP) - The Hagerstown City Council has approved plans by the city's minor league baseball franchise for 14 fireworks nights next season, but the council added some conditions.
The Hagerstown Suns will be allowed to stage fireworks on no more than two nights during the July fourth homestand and all displays must end by 11 pm.
It's the first time that city council approval has been required for the displays. Some people living near Municipal Stadium had complained about noise and the late hour of past shows.
But at a hearing last week, eleven people urged the city to support the fireworks schedule. The supporters said they are fun and a good tourist attraction. Only one person spoke against the displays.

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COMMENT: They'll ban consumer fireworks and then tell you, "Oh, leave it to the professionals." But then, they don't want the professionals shooting, either. Some people are just anti-fun!

[PyroBubba]

Here's some more coverage of the issue:

The Herald-Mail ONLINE

http://www.herald-mail.com/?module=d...9&format=print
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Wednesday November 30, 2005

Council approves Suns' fireworks request after colorful blasts

by ANDREW SCHOTZ
HAGERSTOWN
andrews@herald-mail.com

The booms and bursts at City Hall Tuesday evening were the opinions of Hagerstown City Council members, crashing against each other over a Hagerstown Suns fireworks proposal.

The Suns had asked the city to allow 14 fireworks nights for the 2006 season, the same as this year and one more than last year.

Council members Lewis C. Metzner and Kristin B. Aleshire favored the request.

As a bloc, though, council members Alesia D. Parson-McBean, Penny M. Nigh and Kelly S. Cromer defeated Metzner's motion. Cromer then recommended cutting the Suns' request to 11 fireworks nights.

Eventually, a 4-1 majority of the council came back around to Landes' request and approved the 14 nights, but not before:

- Splitting up a three-night stretch of fireworks around July 4 and allowing no more than one set of back-to-back fireworks games for the season

- Imposing an 11 p.m. deadline for all fireworks shows to end

- Lustily debating and weighing neighbors' rights and economic development.

Nigh cast the only no vote against the final motion.

Taking the business point of view, Mayor Richard F. Trump called it "an embarrassment" what opponents on the City Council put Suns General Manager Kurt Landes through.

Metzner accused his colleagues of asking to hear from the public, then ignoring their views.

At a comment period last week, 11 people urged the city to support the fireworks, which they said are fun and a good tourism attraction.

The only other person to speak then, John McCune, who lives near Municipal Stadium, said he and his neighbors aren't against fireworks shows, but don't want them to run so late into the night.

On Tuesday, Cromer said she has heard from others who did not speak out last week. They have complained about noise, the late hour of shows and debris, she said.

Landes has said the team has had one fireworks show in four years start after 11 p.m. and that was because of an expected rain delay and extra innings.

Council members urged Landes to stop late-running games to shoot off fireworks, but Landes said he didn't think baseball's rules would allow that. He said the city's rules and baseball's rules put him "between a rock and a hard place" as he tries to obey both.

Landes also said he couldn't, as one council member suggested, unpack fireworks from the shells if the night was getting late. A Hagerstown Fire Department memo agreed that it was not a safe thing to do.

Metzner's proposal - to allow 14 fireworks shows, with an 11 p.m. curfew - was defeated 3-2, with Parson-McBean, Nigh and Cromer voting no.

Cromer's counterproposal was to cut the number of shows to 11, also with an 11 p.m. curfew.

Landes shook his head when he heard that. He said the council's limit would send "a very negative message" to Mandalay Sports Entertainment, which owns the team.

"I remind you that we are talking about a business ... and this is their most profitable opportunity," Trump said.

Landes has said that fireworks shows make up 20 percent of the team's home schedule, but account for about 30 percent of the season attendance.

Under the agreement that the council approved, Landes must cancel fireworks from the middle game in a three-game July 4 fireworks stretch and move it to a different Sunday.

However, he was allowed two straight games of fireworks in June, when he has business commitments already in place.

Metzner and Cromer later complimented the council for bending enough to create a compromise.

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http://www.herald-mail.com/?module=d...9&format=print

Friday December 2, 2005

Tension resurfaces at council meeting

by ANDREW SCHOTZ

After several weeks of good will, tension again bubbled over at Tuesday's Hagerstown City Council meeting.

The sharpest exchange was between Mayor Richard F. Trump and Councilwoman Penny M. Nigh, who shouted at each other during a debate on whether the Hagerstown Suns should be allowed 14 fireworks shows in 2006.

When Nigh tried to mention a letter from a resident, Trump cut her off and called "order."

Nigh pressed the mayor to let her speak, but Trump, who oversees City Council meetings, banged a gavel and repeatedly called "order." The two loudly went back and forth several times.

"This meeting won't go forward," Trump declared.

Councilman Kristin B. Aleshire broke the impasse by supporting Nigh's right to introduce a document into the debate. Nigh then had her say.

Nigh, whom Trump more frequently cuts off than other council members, later cautioned the mayor, "If you call someone down, do it for all. I don't want to be singled out."

The mayor and the council got off to a rocky start in May after Trump and two new council members were sworn in. Their bickering was part of nearly every meeting.

In September, the council accused the mayor of "inappropriate behavior" and, in a letter, put him "on notice." For the last several weeks, though, the rapport had greatly improved.

A few minutes after Nigh complained about being picked on Tuesday, Trump called council members' opposition to the fireworks plan "an embarrassment."

"There again, the men outweigh the women," Nigh replied as council members adjourned, referring to a vote on the fireworks request. Trump and the council's two men - Aleshire and Lewis C. Metzner - initially supported the request; the council's three women - Nigh, Kelly S. Cromer and Alesia D. Parson-McBean - opposed it.

Immediately after the meeting ended, Parson-McBean chided Trump for consistently calling her by her first name.

When addressing council members, Trump sometimes uses their first names, but other times uses "councilman" and their last names, even for Nigh and Cromer.

For Parson-McBean, though, he usually uses only her first name.

[PyroBubba]

And here's a column from the local newspaper ...

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http://www.herald-mail.com/?module=d...1&format=print

Tuesday December 6, 2005

Suns bring out council's true fireworks

by TIM ROWLAND

Commentary

Memo to Hagerstown Suns General Manager Kurt Landes: Please request something else from the Hagerstown City Council. Just something. Anything. It's just so much fun to watch this council shear a pin over anything baseball-related that it would be a great disservice to the community not to do so.

Come on, Kurt, you are in the entertainment business. Don't you feel a certain sense of obligation here? To be honest, the council meetings had gotten a bit sluggish lately, and it took the good old American pastime to bring them back to form.

Sure, you could watch The Girls chatting away in their Pajama Party Caucus, or listen to Lew - who for soliloquies makes Hamlet sound like Marcel Marceau - self-agonize over point-source effluent discharge. But those acts had gotten a little thin. And true, the mayor is still cutting off Penny in midsentence, but he's not doing it with the same flair, in my view.

But introduce a round, white ball to this group and all bets are off.

To be fair, the council did the right thing in the end. They allowed the Suns to host 14 fireworks displays through the season, with a couple of modest restrictions. But watching them get there? Oh ... My ... God.

The Hagerstown Suns are the city's biggest tourist draw. They bring more people to the city than any other attraction in Hagerstown, other than District Court. So naturally, there is a tendency on the part of this council to throw every piece of office furniture it can in the Suns' way.

Suns' attendance has soared since Landes arrived on the scene. The team has earned national ink from its promotions. This year, it won the first-half championship. People who normally wouldn't set foot in the city on a bet are coming here and spending money. It's been a successful business - probably the city's most successful business in every sense of the word - over the past three years. Behind Landes is Mandalay, a Big Business that is prepared to pour investment money into the city if it can get just the slightest assurance that this council isn't crazier than a jailhouse rat.

Now let's go to a hypothetical city, one controlled by a fair dose of reason and logic. With a business such as the Suns in hand, its council members might be showing up on the team's doorstep saying, "Thanks, good show, how can we help?"

But not this bunch.

Let's be clear, the Suns are helping the city, even as the city does its best to make the team's life difficult.

Trump gets it, as do Metzner and Kristin. After that, it's DiMaggio bar the door.

If you're looking for logic, take your doubloons to another pirate. At a recent meeting, Penny Nigh sputtered indignantly about "a citizen" whose concerns about a South End development were not redressed. But fireworks supporters outnumbered opponents 11-1, and that didn't stop Penny from ignoring those "citizens."

As Metzner said, why do we bother to have public hearings in the first place, if we're going to ignore the public?

Nigh and Kelly Cromer are always referring to some shadowy person they have "heard from" who is opposed to everything (dude gets around, don't he?).

If it's that big a deal to them, then these "heard from" people ought to drag themselves down to City Hall and make themselves and their views known, as Suns supporters were more than proud to do last month.

And why vent so much poison toward something as American and wholesome as baseball, for crying out loud? In Hagerstown, apple pie had better watch its backside.

Yeah, I know, Hagerstown has much more serious things on its agenda. Gangs and all. Look, last gang I saw in Hagerstown was when Wal-Mart had a sale on stretch pants.

Although maybe it's the gangs that are "getting to" council members and telling them to make the Suns' life miserable. "Pssst. Ladies. Rub out the Suns or next time we're going to rearrange something besides your dining table flowers."

I have mixed feelings, because if there are gangs it would be the only organized thing in Hagerstown. I'm not saying we should honor the Crips at the next Chamber banquet, but it is kind of an accomplishment, when you think about it. And no, don't send me your Chamber award categories - Best Washington County Gang, Best Small Gang, Best Use of Technology by a Gang - I already thought about it and decided the concept wasn't good enough to make the cut.

But I am open to ideas for how the Suns could incorporate the council into its promotional entertainment schedule. After the game, we could sit them in the outfield and have them debate the merits of the high strike zone.

Fireworks wouldn't be as entertaining as that - although they would be quieter.

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Tim Rowland is a Herald-Mail columnist.