Letter to the Editor:No sleep due to fireworks

Dear Editor,
Dollars and cents must have driven the decision to pass the Michigan Fireworks Safety Act in January. The word safety should not have been included in the name of this act.
Are you aware that 8,500 people every year are seen in the hospital with injuries from fireworks? The average cost is $100 million per year. Yet you decide to increase the power of fireworks sold in Michigan
There are three temporary firework tents within a half mile of our home. We assume the state is getting a good portion of the permit money, other communities have banned these permits, but not Lake Orion. We live on a lake and have not had a decent night’s sleep since May. It sounds like a war zone every night until 2 or 3 a.m.
We have been forced to give our dog tranquilizers and have slept many nights in the closet trying to keep him calm. He is 10 years old and we can not drug him every night.
Permits are being issued to increase the potency and number of fireworks sold, yet we do not have the man power to enforce local noise ordinances. I noticed in the Lake Orion Review (our local paper) that we were asked not call the township regarding fireworks. Their answer is call the police. The police are not responsiblefor the permits to sell nor the increase in the power of firework being sold.
We would have hoped that our law makers would ahve done a better job thinking through this law fromt he state level down to the township. You have created a quality of life issue in our community.
– Steve and Cythia Danton