Fireworks convention location sparks backlash from neighbors

Newton residents told city council members that the site where the Pyrotechnics Guild International Convention could be held next year is way too close to their homes. They told them it would be too loud and unreasonably disrupt their daily lives by holding it in a field just north of Woodland Park.

Others said they were not properly notified by the city of its intentions to provide park and cemetery grounds for use during the private event. When council member Stacy Simbro offered to postpone the resolution until after PGI representatives scouted the site’s viability, residents got their hopes up.

However, Simbro’s motion failed to receive a second, and it died on the spot. The council offered no counterargument. In contrast to another action that received resident pushback that same night, council members did not spend any time debating each other. So they went ahead and approved it 5-1.

“That’s bull(expletive),” said one resident as he stormed out of city hall.

Jeff Stark asked council members if they wanted to see and hear fireworks going off in their backyard. As a resident and business owner who lives nearby, Stark said it is not a good idea to hold the event within city limits. Dan Newell suggested the Woodland Park area is a densely populated neighborhood.

“A lot of people live in those apartments, and I don’t think they even got this,” Newell said, holding up the mail-in notice to residents. “I’m sure they would have had something to say. Many of them have small children. Many of them have pets. This is right on top of where hundreds of people live.”

Karen Backus worries about her home companion who is a 26-year Army veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder. Even a bottle rocket on the Fourth of July bothers him at the age of 81. And he is not the only veteran in town with PTSD. To have fireworks go off for more than a week could be traumatic for them.

“We could hear it last year when it was out at the (Iowa) Speedway,” she said.

Meg Outhouse felt better knowing the city was not organizing the event for itself but rather it is a private group wanting to host it in the city. She also had sympathy for any veterans with PTSD. Outhouse is not against fireworks and liked the event when it was held at the Iowa Speedway in 2023.

“I just totally disagree with it in town,” Outhouse said. “People, veterans, Alzheimer’s patients, pets — we deserve to feel safe in our homes. And I just don’t see how this would be a great idea for anybody. No matter what the profit is, it’s not worth the harm.”

Council member Mark Hallam read a letter from the PGI Newton Committee, which offered additional insight into the use of public areas for the event. If approved, the PGI Convention would be held Aug. 9-16 in 2025. Woodland Park and the adult softball complex would be used for daily convention.

“It would also include Agnes Patterson Park for parking on public night activities, and the northernmost part of Union Cemetery grounds, which is the T-ball fields, for camping … for the PGI attendees,” Hallam said. “These areas would be maintained and kept clean by the PGI Board and PGI Newton Committee.”

The convention itself would be split between those parks and the DMACC Campus. The PGI Newton Committee will also submit a proposal to the city for temporary ordinances that would be put in place for the PGI Convention, including parking, golf carts used on assigned routes and camping on city land.

PGI will also submit its certificate of insurance to the city to make sure Newton is protected from any liabilities from hosting this convention.

Hallam said the convention will bring more than 1,700 members to Newton and Jasper County areas. They will use more than 800 hotel rooms and 350 campsites, and they will spend money at local retail outlets and restaurants. The estimated economic impact to the city is between $2 million to $3 million.

Council member Randy Ervin disclosed that he is the chair of the PGI Newton Committee. He was upfront that the event will be very loud for a week. He also said fireworks would be lit off between 4 and 11 p.m. every night. Some might be as late as midnight. This did not sit well with residents.

Ervin also stressed that no fireworks will be shot off near the cemetery. He said the committee has been speaking with a local farmer to use his land to shoot off fireworks, but that has not been finalized. He also reminded residents that “none of this is set in concrete” until the PGI board visits and scopes out the area.

“There’s no contract in place at this point and there is a lot of still fuzzy areas that will be discussed,” Ervin said. “If this doesn’t work, then we’ll walk away from it. It is a good thing for the city. There wasn’t a restaurant, there wasn’t a retail outlet in the whole county who didn’t benefit financially.”

Of course that was back when the event was hosted at the Iowa Speedway, a venue that many residents thought would be better suited. Ervin explained that the racetrack was contacted but the event conflicted with the set up of other races. Simbro said it would be beneficial to have information from PGI.

“Noise is my biggest concern with this. I want to do it right. I love these things. I’ve been to several of them,” he said, noting the noise is a real issue. “…Maybe what I would suggest is we suspend the vote on this park agreement until after this weekend when we get information.”

The motion did not receive any support, so the council moved on to vote 5-1 to approve the use of city parks and cemetery grounds for the PGI Convention.