The Atlantic City Council, Wednesday evening, passed an Amendment to the Fiscal Year 2017 budget that incorporated changes in the areas revenue, interest revenue and expenditures. In the end, the result is an increase in revenues amounting to $34,500 and an increase in expenditures of $25,700, or an increase of $8,800 in excess revenue and other sources over the expenditures/transfers out in the fiscal year. The total budget as amended is $14,416, 608., leaving the City with an ending fund balance on June 30th, 2017 of $5,332,130, as opposed to the certified budget of $5,323,300.

The Council also approved an amendment to the City’s Code of Ordinances with regard to the sale and use of fireworks, the specifics of which we’ve previously mentioned on KJAN. Fire Chief Mark McNees expressed concerns however, that a provision was removed in the Ordinance regarding gross weight limits for the amount of fireworks at any given location, where permanent and temporary structures are used to sell the devices.

City Administrator John Lund said the State Fire Marshal’s Office never returned calls from the City with regard to guidance on the matter, and other Cities have given-up trying to further regulate the sale of fireworks until they have better guidance.

McNees said there is guidance available from the National Fire Protection Association, in the form of NFPA 101, a Life Safety Code used as a consensus standard and widely adopted in the United States and used in the State of Iowa. The State bases their inspections on NFPA 1124. The same goes for the checklist McNees will be required to use for inspections. He said the requirements don’t apply to vendors who have less than 500 pounds in a building not covered by sprinklers, or less than 1,000 pounds for a building equipped with sprinklers. McNees said “We have very few sprinkled buildings, in Atlantic. We have a whole lot of unsprinkled ones.”

He suggested the City leave the weight limits as they were, using the 500 and 1,000 pound limits as a safety factor. He said “Our problem is, if something happens with one of these, we do not have the equipment, we don’t have the manpower. If it goes up, most likely we’re going to sit there and watch it from a distance. But to try to protect buildings, and/or people, and/or roadways…that initial fire/explosion…is the problem.”

City Clerk Barb Barrick says she’s received at least six inquires from fireworks vendors, and one transient merchant application, which was sent back to be corrected. In other business, City Administrator John Lund said on the first day of three City Clean-up Days, 3 loads of junk left by the curbs was removed and sent to the landfill. There would have been more, but one of the City workers had a family emergency. It’s estimated 25% of the City was covered, Wednesday.

Mayor Dave Jones reminds residents, if the neighbors along your street have had their junk picked up and yours was not, you will be responsible for putting it back on your property in accordance with the Ordinance.