KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
An example of consumer fireworks. Via Steve Harwood / Flickr
Kayla Desroches/KMXT
Fireworks and landscapes were among the topics of discussion Thursday evening at the Borough Assembly work session. Complaints of firework noise coming from Mill Bay Beach brought a neighborhood resident to the table.
Joanne Shaker says the Mill Bay Beach area is just too populated for fireworks.
“I have nothing against fireworks, but there are beaches that are far away from houses,” says Shaker. “If I lived at Kalsin Bay and there were like three other houses around me, I would have no complaint. I would figure people were gonna come out and shoot fireworks because nobody lives out there. But when you can look in someone’s window when shooting off a firework, maybe you should go somewhere else.”
Assembly members agreed firework noise create a problem, and they had remaining concerns, including ordinance enforcement should they ban fireworks on Mill Bay Beach and other beaches in town. Assemblywoman Carol Austerman says she’s heard quite a few comments about fireworks in the last few years.
“I’ve only ever gotten calls from residents in Mill Bay Beach and Mission beach,” says Austerman. “They’ve told me the exact same thing, which is they’ve called the State Troopers. The State Troopers don’t come for hours, because they’re either not on duty, there’s not enough people, and that’s the response we’ve gotten from them historically is that their response to a noise complaint is at the very bottom in the list.”
The general consensus was it bore further discussion and the borough reserved the fireworks decision for an upcoming work session.
The assembly also brought in Matt Gandel, the Borough Engineering and Facilities Project Manager, to talk about the Long Term Care Center Landscape project. Gandel says they cleared the area of trees and put up a guard rail, and now they’re working with a landscape architect to make the land more attractive. Here’s Gandel talking about the Rezanoff side of the property.
“The plan consists of cutting the stumps that are remaining below grade, but leaving them in place to keep the roots stabilized in the hillside, bringing in top soil, doing some live stake plantings and then basically hydro seeding the whole hill,” says Gandel. “The hydro-seed mix is a combination of grasses and wildflowers to give it the pretty colors you see in the pretty pictures.”
Gandel says they will plant a row of rose bushes on the Mill Bay side, as the city owns most of that property. He says landscaping is the last task in the Long Term Care project and that it should be finished by the end of summer.
