• After many of complaints, lawmakers move to limit fireworks in Georgia

  The Telegraph
  JASON VORHEES/THE TELEGRAPH Georgia lawmakers are looking into whether fireworks laws passed last summer should be limited to much dismay of sellers.
  

ATLANTA — A few months of legal Roman candles, bottle rockets and other fireworks in Georgia have been enough to startle state lawmakers into looking to limit the pyrotechnics, though they may also try to use some fireworks tax cash to bankroll hospitals and fire departments.

The next few days will determine which new fireworks laws, if any, could be put on the books.

Right now, Georgians can use fireworks from 10 a.m. until midnight most days and until 2 a.m. on New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, July 3 and July Fourth. Almost as soon as the law went into effect last summer, lawmakers started getting complaints about loud noise at all hours and people launching pyrotechnics in dangerous places, including under bridges.

Several bills have been drafted that would limit the days, times and places that people could use fireworks or that would give cities and counties the power to set their own limits.

“Every one of those bills is an improvement over current statute,” said Todd Edwards, associate legislative director of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, which lobbies on behalf of the state’s 159 counties.