Fireworks sales steady at Boom Boom Billy’s in Cedar Rapids

Corridor residents have one place to legally buy fireworks for the New Year's holiday.

And that's Boom Boom Billy's Fireworks, doing business this month at Hawkeye Downs, 4400 Sixth St. SW in Cedar Rapids.

Business has been pretty steady, reports co-owner Paul Myers of Shueyville.

In the last few weeks, he said, he's had around 150 sales, with buyers spending about $60 per visit.

For New Year's Eve, he said, many customers are buying quieter fireworks, ones that last longer - so they can run outside, light them and run back inside where it's warm to watch.

After a raucous June and July, the Cedar Rapids City Council banned people from setting off fireworks inside the city limits.

Myers said he makes sure buyers know about the Cedar Rapids ordinance.

'It's not in my best interest to try to pull the wool over anyone's eyes,” he said. 'Cedar Rapids is pretty clear that they don't anyone shooting off fireworks.

'I don't necessarily think that's going to stop anybody. People were shooting fireworks before Iowa made them legal. They're going to probably shoot them again.

'The difference is they don't have to drive to Missouri, Wisconsin or Nebraska to get their fireworks.”

That said, many of those buying fireworks this month at Boom Boom Billy's have been from Shueyville, Walford, Atkins or other small towns, Myers said.

Customers told him they'd be setting off small displays on farms for the New Year's holiday.

law changes

The Iowa Legislature legalized firework sales in the state this year, permitting their use and sale between June 1 and July 8 and Dec. 10 to Jan. 3.

Cedar Rapids, in addition to banning their use inside the city, also restricted their sale to areas zoned for industrial use.

Iowa City has a similar ordinance, but no vendors applied to sell them in industrial zones there.

Myers has been setting off Cedar Rapids' fireworks displays for the past 20 years.

As soon as the state legalized the sale of fireworks, he rushed to put together his own consumer-grade fireworks business.

He said he didn't want one or two large fireworks businesses in Missouri snapping up all of Iowans' sales.

showing iowans

Myers has about 240 varieties of fireworks displayed in bold packaging or in sets at his Hawkeye Downs store.

Many of the 'cakes” - rounds of fireworks - are next to TVs showing videos of what the product looks like when lit.

It's a necessary sales tactic for Iowans, Myers explained.

'Most Iowans haven't been in the market of buying fireworks,” he said. 'We want to make sure they see what they look like.”

‘TOO COLD'

Phil and Mike Bisenius, of Cedar Rapids, stopped at Hawkeye Downs this week, saying they were scoping out what they might want to buy in the summer.

'We're probably not going to do anything for New Year's,” Phil said. 'It's going to be too cold.”

Phil said he often traveled to Missouri to get fireworks for the Fourth of July, but he does understand why many residents don't want them shot off inside the city.

'This last year, it was kind of ridiculous,” he said. 'We were down in the Czech Village, and it was like being in a war zone. I kind of see why people got mad about that.

'When we shot off fireworks in town, we always did it when the local golf course did theirs.

'Some of these people go a little crazy and shot them off at two or three in the morning,” he said, adding a wish that people 'would use a little bit more constraint and use some common sense. Fireworks can be dangerous and self-destructive and a nuisance.”

And though Myers predicts he'll sell more fireworks this summer, he thinks consumers will be more cautious about where - and when - they set them off.

'The novelty of it all will wear off,” he said.

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