New Fireworks Stand Mere Yards from Forney City Limits

Denise Bell
Post Managing Editor

Updated July 3, 2009

Clear skies and hot weather are forecasted for the 4th of July and the many fireworks stands that clutter the east bound Highway 80 entrance to Forney, are stocked and ready to both sell and provide convenient locations for their customers to ignite their purchases.

Over the last several years the firework companies located just outside Forney have steadily been building additional stands, expanding onto adjacent property to provide more “popping” areas, and now another stand has opened just mere yards from the Forney City Limits sign.

The firework operations located along Highway 80 at Lawson Road sell tens of thousands of dollars in fireworks yearly and an endless stream of their customers line the service road and along the Lake Ray Hubbard river bottom to fire off their purchases.

These stands are located in the Forney ETJ and the water of Lake Ray Hubbard is physically located between these stands and the City of Forney.

This year, Forney citizen’s driving on U S Hwy 80 will notice a new fire works stand located at the Clements Road exit, which is Kaufman County Road 225.

Permitted as K&L Fireworks, this stand is located on the Bodin Concrete Forney Plant site and property owners have mowed the large adjacent pasture and put up large signs advertising and inviting their customers to purchase and pop on site.

All of the fire works stands located on Hwy 80, including K&L Fireworks, are outside of the jurisdiction of the Forney Police. They are all located in the Forney ETJ and therefore the City’s firework ordinance is not enforceable.

K&L Fireworks may legally join the assortment of other stands and invite their customers to “pop” all night, less than half a mile from Forney homes, and Forney city officials can not prevent this activity.

When the City of Forney last updated the city limit boundaries, they annexed property in this area to extend the city limits to the shoreline of the Lake Ray Hubbard.

However, for unknown reasons, this tiny parcel of privately owned land was not included in the annexation and so the property owner can apparently build, operate or sell whatever he sees fit.

Unfortunately, Forney taxpayers pay the price for the very growing situation, since its Forney’s Police and Fire that are usually the first responders on the countless grass fires and traffic accidents that arise from the close proximity of these stands to Forney.

Kaufman County Fire Marshall Larry Ewing stated, “As of today, (Wednesday, July 1st) we have 68 stands permitted in Kaufman County and some are in smaller cities like Rossier, Scurry and Combine.”

The 14,000 citizens of Forney are advised to take care when traveling either east or west bound on U S Highway 80 throughout the holiday weekend due to the fact that in past years numerous incidents have been reported of fireworks being ignited too close to passing motorists.