Crawfordsville residents cannot set off firecrackers except to celebrate certain holidays under a change approved Monday to the city’s noise ordinance.
The city council voted 7-0 to pass a measure adding fireworks to the list of items regulated by the ordinance. Under the new law, firecrackers are allowed only during certain hours on and around the Fourth of July, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day and the Chinese New Year.
Until now, the city had followed state law on the year-round use of legal consumer fireworks. Local communities have the authority to enact stricter rules, and Mayor Todd Barton’s office recommended the limits in response to growing complaints from residents about excessive noise from firecrackers.
Consumer fireworks are off limits in Crawfordsville except from 5 p.m. to midnight June 29-July and July 5-9, 10 a.m. to midnight July 4 and New Year’s Eve and 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. New Year’s Day.
For Chinese New Year, fireworks can be set from 3 to 9 p.m. on Chinese New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day and the following three days.
In other business, the council:
• Approved a resolution establishing a fund for tax increment financing revenues for the Ben Hur Building project and heard first reading of an ordinance to enact the fund.
• Passed an ordinance setting the salaries of the mayor, clerk-treasurer, city council, appointed officers and employees for 2021. No raises were offered due to the economic situation surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.
The mayor’s salary is $76,582 and the clerk-treasurer is paid $63,600. City council members make $4,825 per year.
• Approved a resolution approving the Montgomery County Youth Service Bureau’s donation of a small piece of land for Kathleen J. Steele Playground.
• Heard first reading of an ordinance adding a disabled parking space directly in front of the house at 201 E. College St. and an ordinance vacating the north-south alley between 1008 and 1010 E. Elmore St.
