WINONA -- The Winona Board of Aldermen will be reviewing two existing ordinances over the next few weeks -- the fireworks ordinance and the burn ordinance.
At Tuesday’s regular meeting of the board, Dorothy Jackson asked the board to reconsider allowing fireworks to be used in the city limits.
Jackson said on New Year’s, she had to bear hours of fireworks and gunshots from the surrounding area.
“Some of those rockets were shot up on my roof,” Jackson said. “I’m scared my house will burn down.”
Alderman David Ware told Jackson that currently, the city has limited fireworks to a specific time period around Independence Day and New Year’s.
Jackson said it was during that time that the use of fireworks became too much for her.
Mayor Jerry Flowers asked board members to review the current fireworks ordinance to see if it can be approved upon before the Independence Day holiday.
The city’s current burn ordinance was also under fire at Tuesday’s meeting.
Stemming from a local landowner burning the remains of a demolished house and the tops of trees after timber was harvesting on property located on Highway 82, Flowers asked the board if he could re-work the current burn ordinance to eliminate any confusion in what is allowed and not allowed to be burned in the city limits.
According to Alderman David Ware, the current ordinance does not allow burning tops of trees following a timber harvest, and in the past, developers were made to dispose of those trees elsewhere.
Flowers said he didn’t see where the current burn ordinance forbade burning treetops in the city limits, but he would work on a new ordinance to clarify any confusion and present it to the board at a later date.
In other city business:
* Park Director Mike Narmour said youth recreational basketball signups will be held Friday, January 18, from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. at Winona City Hall.
* The Winona Street Department is currently working on grading gravel roads and making repairs after the recent rains.
