By KEVIN NEVERS

It may now be legal for Hoosiers to discharge fireworks, but that doesn’t mean that their neighbors have to like it. And apparently a lot of them don’t.

As Chesterton Police Chief George Nelson told the Police Commission at its meeting Wednesday, the CPD has been receiving numerous complaints from residents about fireworks in their neighborhoods. Unfortunately, he said, there’s not much his officers can do about it.

Because it’s not only legal now under state statute to detonate fireworks—on your property, between the hours of 9 a.m. and 11 p.m.—but any violations of that statute are supposed to be enforced by the State Fire Marshal’s Office. And there aren’t exactly battalions of State Fire Marshals patrolling the streets of Chesterton, Nelson said.

“I don’t know the answer,” he added. “They don’t give us the enabling statute to let us do our job.”

One possible solution, Nelson suggested, would be the application of Chapter 15 of the Town Code: “Nuisances.” But the language of Chapter 15 is regrettably vague, he noted. A nuisance, for instance, is any “condition or thing” which threatens “the comfort, repose, health, or safety of others”; or “is offensive to the senses”; or “interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property.”

Fireworks could accordingly be considered a nuisance under Town Code, but as President Steve Brickner observed, they are also perfectly legal under Indiana Code.

For his part Member Nick Walters ventured that residents “could get more results calling their state legislators and letting them know how they feel than talking to us.”

In any case, the commission agreed to revisit the issue at its next meeting, Aug. 9, after reviewing both the state statue and the nuisance ordinance. “That’s a least a step forward,” Nelson said.

Bits and Pieces

•Nelson informed members that new radio equipment has been ordered, after Town Council authorized the use of Cumulative Capital Development funds to purchase the gear. “Now it’s just waiting until it gets here,” he said. “Four to six weeks is what I was told.” As part of the upgrade and replacement of the old gear—some of which is 15 to 20 years of age—the Duneland School Board has approved the installation of a satellite antenna at Chesterton High School. Nelson has put the cost of the equipment at $25,409. Typically CCD funds are used for the purchase of squads.

•Nelson told the commission that background checks and voice stress analyses are now being conducted on 14 applicants for the position of patrol officer. More than 30 applicants sat for the entrance examination, he said, 24 of whom qualified to take the physical agility test and 14 of whom successfully completed that test. At least one and possibly two replacement positions may open later this year.

•Members expressed their gratitude to Mr. and Mrs. John Kalaygich for their donation of $20 to the CPD Gift Fund.

June in Review

In June the CPD responded to 1,506 calls (1,485 in May), filed 92 cases (100 in May), issued 74 citations and 92 warnings (65 and 116 in May), filed one felony charge and 25 misdemeanor (seven and 30 in May), served 10 warrants (eight in May), and investigated 46 accidents with seven injuries (33 accidents with eight injuries and one fatality in May).

The CPD also assigned five juvenile cases (45 in May) and filed no felony charges and four misdemeanor (three and one in April).

Calls for service included 24 alarms, 26 animal complaints, three reports of battery, one burglary, two domestic calls, four reports of fraud, two missing persons, two motor vehicle thefts, 21 parking violations, six peddler complaints, two runaways, two reports of shoplifting, one suicide, 29 thefts, 161 traffic stops, two train complaints, 32 incidents of vandalism, 24 reports of a suspicious person, 24 reports of a suspicious vehicle, 36 reports of suspicious circumstances, 20 noise complaints, and 13 fireworks complaints.

Calls for service were heaviest on Fridays, with 175; and lightest on Sundays, with 114.

Posted 7/13/2006