Finding A Balance In Safety
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DAVE’S WORLD
By David Howell
All right, everybody, it looks like we are going to wrap up the budget process in the city during Tuesday night’s meeting.
My prediction is that it will be anti-climactic: raises as promised and enough funding to barely squeak through another year. But I could be wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time.
There are also a few other items on the agenda that have resurfaced multiple times and probably deserve a little more ink: scooters and fireworks.
Water Valley Police Chief Jason Mangrum has asked city officials for help with regulations on both during multiple meetings, and neither is an easy decision.
When it comes to fireworks, Mangrum has always been a proponent of letting everybody have their fun.
Until this year.
You may recall reading earlier in the Herald about problems during the Fourth of July celebration. Large crowds gathered to shoot fireworks, and some were discharged at officers and their cruisers. Police vehicles were damaged.
Compounding the problem is that many of the people gathering here live in other towns where fireworks have already been banned. And with the size of the crowds, there comes a point when there are more people shooting fireworks than the police can reasonably handle.
The compromise may be to restrict fireworks to private property. That would mean no shooting fireworks in city streets, on sidewalks or in parks without a permit.
It may not have a lot of teeth, but it would give police the ability to disperse large crowds before an officer finds himself looking down the barrel of a lit bottle rocket.
Then there are the scooters.
Mangrum’s concern is pretty straightforward: Sooner or later, somebody is going to get hit by a vehicle.
We have all seen kids (and a few adults) zipping up and down the streets and sidewalks on electric scooters and bikes, and the question for aldermen is how much regulation is enough without going overboard.
The most comical part of the whole discussion came during a well-attended budget meeting last month, when the crowd at City Hall spilled over into the courthouse.
The purpose of the meeting was serious enough. Residents were there as aldermen looked for possible budget cuts. But somewhere along the way, the discussion stalled on possible scooter restrictions.
There was some great input. I think my favorite suggestion was Saturday Scooter School.
Say that fast three times.
Scooter school or not, the issue will eventually have to be addressed. The chief has brought it before aldermen more than once, and his concern is not really about scooters. It’s about keeping a kid from getting hurt.
There probably isn’t a perfect ordinance for either problem. Fireworks and electric scooters aren’t inherently a problem. The trouble starts when they are used in places and in ways that put other people at risk.
That’s the balance aldermen will have to find. Nobody wants City Hall regulating every bit of fun out of town, but nobody wants to wait until somebody gets seriously hurt before deciding something should have been done, either.
As for the rest of us, if fuel prices keep going up, we may all be motoring around Water Valley on electric scooters before the year is out.
Maybe I ought to sign up for Saturday Scooter School myself.
