Ann and Wofford Johnson are tireless in their fight against the festive, potentially dangerous rockets and want county help.
By RON MATUS
Published November 28, 2003
To combat fireworks, Ann and Wofford Johnson have become firebrands.
The Sunset Park couple is leading a charge to persuade the Hillsborough County Commission to eliminate illegal fireworks sales.
"We think they're a nuisance, and we know they're dangerous," said Wofford Johnson, a past president of the Sunset Park Area Homeowners Association.
The Johnsons seem unlikely activists. Wofford Johnson, 70, is a retired insurance executive; Ann, 66, a housewife.
But both have been active in neighborhood issues, from saving trees to cleaning up stormwater.
On the fireworks issue, they're also waving the banner of neighborhood protection.
"In our neighborhood, it goes on year-round," Ann Johnson said. "Our windows shake from those rockets."
The Johnsons have the same complaints many people do: noise, debris, fear of property damage. They've listened to neighbors complain about rockets burning holes through swimming-pool screens. They're stunned by the number of fires and injuries fireworks cause.
When they first raised the issue with county officials a few years ago, the effort fizzled. But in July, the County Commission empowered a 15-member committee to study how effective restrictions have been in other communities.
The Johnsons were among five citizens appointed. And among the most vocal.
"The fireworks industry doesn't like us," Wofford Johnson said. "We are the enemy."
The industry's response: "As much as I like them, they're running on their gut," said Todd Pressman, an industry representative who also served on the committee, which met every other week for three months. "They're reacting to the issue on their emotions."
The commission is scheduled to discuss the committee's report Wednesday. The Johnsons hope commissioners support an ordinance similar to one the Pinellas County Commission passed in June. That ordinance closed what many considered a loophole in state law that allowed people to buy fireworks if they signed a form saying they need the fireworks for approved uses, such as mining or farming.
"They call it the lie form," Wofford Johnson said.
Under the new rule in Pinellas, buyers must get a permit from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. Johnson recommended that people should have to get permission from the county fire marshal.
The committee did not go as far as the Johnsons wanted.
Instead of a Pinellas-style ordinance, the group suggested the county encourage the state to beef up enforcement and create a rule barring minors from selling or possessing fireworks.
The industry was "not thrilled" with the recommendations, but at least they "address the problems in the real world," Pressman said.
Unable to move the committee toward stricter rules, the Johnsons are now mobilizing neighborhood support.
By their count, 175 neighborhood groups in Tampa and Hillsborough County want the County Commission to follow Pinellas. They're hoping a strong turnout at the Wednesday meeting will sway commissioners whose support for a crackdown hasn't exactly been red hot.
If the commission remains cold to the idea, the Johnsons say they won't give up.
"I have been consumed by this," Ann Johnson said. "If I die tomorrow, I will have given my life for something my heart is in."
The committee will present its report at 2:30 p.m. in the County Commission chambers at the County Center, 601 E Kennedy Blvd.
