OTHELLO — Fireworks at all hours of the night are apparently a problem in Othello.

“I don’t think citizens understand when they can stop,” resident Debbie Kudrna told members of the city council at a regular meeting on Monday.

Kudrna said the situation was so bad with neighbors setting off fireworks that last July 4, she didn’t want to leave her home.

“There’s so much going on,” she added. “A firework hit our motorhome.”

Resident Dawn Wilkins was worried that her husband, a truck driver who needs to get up for work at 3 a.m., isn’t able to get enough sleep on some nights because of the noise, and that the debris from fireworks set off in the streets isn’t cleaned up.

“There’s trash left all over the road,” Wilkins said. “Is it just our neighborhood or is it all of Othello?”

According to Othello city ordinance, fireworks can only legally be set off within the city limits on July 1-3 from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., from 9 a.m. to midnight on July 4, and again from 6 p.m. on Dec. 31 to 1 a.m. on Jan. 1.

Kudrna said the ordinance should be repealed in its entirety or the city should make a greater effort to educate citizens on when fireworks may legally be used.

“We have some awesome fireworks in Lions Park,” she added, referring to the city’s official Independence Day show.

“Educating citizens is a must,” said Council member Genna Dorow. “If there’s a problem, people should call the police and let them know.”

However, Council member John Lallas wondered if simply educating people was enough. Perhaps the time had come to start enforcing the law more stringently, ticketing and citing more people who violate the city’s fireworks laws.

“Education is not working at all,” he said. “I’d like to see some enforcement, I really would.”

“We can’t just let people do as they please,” he added. “This is the law.”

Lallas said the city needed an enforcement plan for next year.

Police Chief Phil Schenck told council members that violations of the fireworks ordinance, police need to see illegal acts in progress or conduct a “difficult” and time-consuming investigation in order to cite people.

Schenck said the police do a better job of getting the word out on Facebook, and said there probably wasn’t much of an information campaign this year about when fireworks were permissible in the run-up to New Year’s Eve.

The police chief added that under their current contract, police officers are not allowed to take vacation during the July 4 and New Year’s Day holidays.

Mayor Shawn Logan, who in 2017 lost his house to a fire likely caused by an errant Fourth of July firework, asked Schenck to report back to the council what the city would need to do in order both to inform people and to enforce the law properly.

“We need to make sure it gets regulated,” Lallas added. “Whatever it takes, Chief. Go get ’em.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at [email protected]