POST FALLS - Fundraising on city streets in Post Falls could get the boot.

The Post Falls City Council will consider banning fundraising in city rights of way during a workshop on April 16 at 5 p.m. before the regular meeting.

City staff has proposed such a law due to safety concerns. It has been bantered for several years.

"The Police Department and Engineering and Street divisions have felt for years that the roadway is for vehicle traffic (and not fundraising)," said Terry Werner, the city's public works director.

Fire agencies across the country, including in Kootenai County, have held their annual successful summertime Fill the Boot fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association in which off-duty firefighters man street corners and straddle medians of busy intersections to solicit funds from motorists with their fire boots.

Post Falls last year denied Kootenai County Fire and Rescue's request to hold the event in city streets.

Other cities are wrestling with the same question and some have passed similar laws.

KCFR Fire Chief Warren Merritt declined to comment on the proposed ordinance until after the workshop.

Post Falls officials say there has been an increase in such fundraising requests from local nonprofits and it becomes an issue of fairness if one group is allowed to fundraise in the streets and others aren't.

"We have no standards by which to judge the requests," Jerry Mason, city attorney, wrote in a memo to the council.

The Combat Vet Riders applied for a permit for its "Fill the Helmet" fundraiser last October, but canceled the event. The Guardians Foundation, which assists veterans and their families, applied for a permit in February, but it was denied.

"With the increased number of requests, we felt that it would be best to address this now," Police Chief Scot Haug said.

Haug said he's unaware of any accidents that have occurred in Post Falls as a result of people soliciting funds in the streets, but there are several pedestrian accidents each year and he believes it's only a matter of time before someone gets hurt during a fundraiser.

"The Police Department has, and continues, to believe that standing in the road for any reason is risky behavior and in many cases across the country it has led to tragic results," Haug said. "Even in emergency services we have started to see an increase in officers struck and injured or killed while outside of their vehicle in the roadway performing their duties. And this is with emergency vehicles and trained personnel.

"My feeling is the risk is even greater for an untrained person without an emergency vehicle and proper safety gear in place."

Mason wrote that scrambling for money to donate at busy intersections can create an unsafe situation.

City officials say that, in addition to safety concerns, some residents don't like being approached for funds at intersections and some admit that they purposely avoid such intersections so they aren't approached.

City staff said that the law needs to be consistent with its approval/denial process for such permits. The city has denied three permit requests to raise funds on streets in the past year.

State law prohibits fundraising in streets, but allows cities to approve it.