Fireworks stand in unincorporated Tarrant disappears after neighbors’ complaints
When Kate Zimmerman left for work early Tuesday morning, she didn’t think to look over at the truck lot and fireworks stand across street that she says has has caused her and her neighbors grief for around six months.
She and other residents living off Eden Road South in unincorporated Tarrant County have been concerned about the light and noise coming from their neighbor Joe Sterling’s truck lot since it was built in December. When Sterling put a fireworks stand on the property, their concerns for their animals and quality of life heightened.
There are few protections for those in unincorporated areas of the county, and as leaders have hit roadblocks with finding a solutions to the entanglement, the neighbors went as far as creating two churches in the area to protect themselves.
Fireworks code prevents fireworks from being shot off within 600 feet of a church.
Zimmerman told the Star-Telegram she got a text at around 6:40 Tuesday morning from her son after he had gone out to feed his chickens — the stand was gone.
Sterling told the Star-Telegram Tuesday afternoon that he had wanted to have people pay to come pop off fireworks at his property.
But given a temporary restraining order that prevents people from shooting fireworks on the property, he said it would not be a good business decision to keep the stand at its Eden Road South location. He also didn’t want his customers to be harassed, Sterling said.
Sterling moved the stand to 7400 Rendon Bloodworth Road, a place he says people call “fireworks alley.” There are probably 20 other stands there, Sterling said, and the addition of his stand doubled the size of the stand he already had in that area.
On Monday, Zimmerman noticed Sterling had taken the sign off his stand. She didn’t see the stand’s removal coming.
“It felt good, I’m not gonna lie,” Zimmerman said. “It felt really good.”
Zimmerman said the fight isn’t over yet. The neighbors are still working at trying to mitigate the noise and lights from the truck parking lot in an attempt to protect the neighborhood.
“Fight’s not over, but we’ve won the first skirmish,” Zimmerman said.
