DIXFIELD — Selectmen had a lengthy discussion Tuesday night about fireworks complaints after two women said they were tired of dealing with people not respecting them or their property.
The discussion began with police Chief Richard A. Pickett telling the board that there were 19 reported incidents for which complaints were filed with his department. Pickett said there could have been many more incidents, but no complaints were filed.
He said Dixfield police received 11 complaints in 2012, four in 2013 and one so far this year. The other complaints go back as far as 2009.
One woman asked him why he didn’t have her complaint about fireworks being ignited inside her mailbox, blowing it open and burning her mail inside. Pickett said he did not find such a complaint, but told her that it could have been filed as a criminal mischief complaint and he would check his logs to see if that was the case.
Pickett said a petition has been circulated through town to create a fireworks ordinance, but he doesn’t believe there are enough complaints to warrant creating an ordinance. He urged people who are having problems with neighbors shooting off fireworks that don’t fall during legal hours or create debris problems in their yards to contact the Police Department and file complaints.
“But if the citizens want to do (an ordinance), I have no problem with that,” he said.
He said the legal time for fireworks use is from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., except during July 4, Dec. 31 and a few weekends that fall before those days when the latest they can be fired is 12:30 a.m.
One woman, identifying herself as Mrs. Richards, said her neighbors set fireworks off and the debris lands in her yard. Her puppy hauls the debris into her house. “It ain’t right,” she said.
Another woman who had her mailbox blown open said the loud bangs next door and above her house frighten her 6-year-old child and the family dog.
“You never know when they’re going to go off,” she said. “I’ve had my frightened 6-year-old on the floor crying, debris in my yard, debris on my house, and my dog eats this.”
Pickett said he has received several complaints from the Leavitt Street area.
“It’s like World War III out there,” one woman said. Both women asked selectmen for more regulation of consumer fireworks in town.
Selectmen took it under advisement.
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