Fireworks magnate Robert Hall has long dominated the blow-'em-up business with his Houston stands. Now he has a lock on the main roadside Southcentral market thanks to a new city law that limits the number of stands in the Mat-Su town and gives Hall a monopoly.
Hall said the new law is in the best interest of the city because it will keep out scofflaw sellers and give him the financial security he needs to meet stricter building requirements the city now requires for fireworks stands.
But a potential competitor and two Houston City Council members who opposed the measure said it will stifle competition and is wrong for the city to exclude other dealers. Businesses gain a monopoly on their own sometimes, "but to outright hand one over is where I have a problem, said Council member Virgie Thompson.
Council member Lance Wilson also objected to what he saw as shutting out legitimate competitors.
"For me, it's a competition issue," he said.
Lee Himes, a council member who proposed the measure at Hall's request and supported it, also now says he would have voted against giving Hall a monopoly, if that is the effect of the law.
That change of mind would not have altered the outcome, however. The council voted 5-2 to approve the new law last week.
Council member Rosemary Burnett, one of the five supporters, said the city has a responsible fireworks dealer and needed to keep it that way. Simply having laws against selling irresponsibly isn't enough to rein in a bad dealer, she said, as it takes time and effort to build a case, and, by then, the damage is done.
"(Limiting) fireworks is kind of like a liquor license, you've got to have someone in control that knows what they're doing," she said.
Still, she said, the city could change the law in the future to allow more stands if legitimate operators were interested.
POPULATION BOOM NEEDED
Here's what the law says:
Houston is limited to one fireworks stand for every 3,000 people, with a minimum of four stands.
The town currently has four stands. Hall and his wife, Amy, own three of them -- Gorilla, Little Gorilla and Black Cat -- and Hall said they acquired a controlling interest this year in the fourth -- TNT Fireworks.
Because Houston's current population is about 2,000 residents, a fifth stand couldn't be authorized until another 13,000 people live in town.
The Houston fireworks stands have long been a magnet in Southcentral as the only legal place to buy fireworks near Anchorage. The next closest stands are in Glennallen and Valdez. They've also stirred controversy since, while it is legal to buy the fireworks and customers flock from all over Southcentral to do so, it is illegal for the most part in Southcentral to set them off anywhere but on private property in Houston. Still, that's a rule anyone with even rudimentary hearing can testify is widely ignored on Independence Day and New Year's Eve.
Hall started his first stand in Houston more than 20 years ago. He acknowledges the new law gives him a lock on the market in town. But that's little different from the way it has been operating, he said.
Essentially there have been four stands in town for years, most run by Hall or his wife. No one has applied for another permit for years, although one company did some serious sniffing around in the last two years, Hall and others said.
"We controlled all the stands for quite a few years, it hasn't been a problem before," he said.
Having a guaranteed lock on the stands will make it easier for him to get financing to meet new city building requirements for stands, he said. It also eliminates his biggest concern, which is that an irresponsible dealer would come in, sell to minors and do other things that could trigger complaints and get all the fireworks stands booted out. That's what led to a ban on the Kenai several years ago, he said.
The fact the law gives him a monopoly is just a "side benefit," he said. The main benefit is to the city in having better-looking, safer stands and a responsible dealer, he said.
LOCKED OUT
Bob Lester, however, widely known as the Bob half of the "Bob and Mark Show" on KWHL-FM and a potential competitor for Hall, said concerns about flaky vendors are unfounded. Lester previously tried to buy the TNT Fireworks stand, and said that he, along with investors, seriously looked at buying land in Houston two years ago to start up his own stand. Anyone who wants to compete with Hall would have to have deep pockets to match his inventory, he said.
"You can't just put up a little five-by-five-foot shack," he said.
And the city can shut down scofflaw dealers who don't follow the rules, he said.
"It just stinks," he said. "Something doesn't smell right."
Still, the law generates mixed feelings in the small town.
Even the City Council members opposed to the new limits laud Hall as a community benefactor. The fireworks stands generate a lot of sales-tax revenue. About 10 percent, or $17,000, of the $175,000 in sales taxes the city collected this fiscal year came from the stands, and Hall is a generous contributor to local causes.
The city also could gain even more revenue as the City Council is considering an additional 2 percent sales tax on fireworks and, in the recently passed law, upped the permit fee for stands from $3,000 to $5,000 a year.
"I have absolutely no complaints with the way Robert Hall has been operating his stands in the past. He's been a great asset in the community," said Wilson, the council member.
Thompson, who unsuccessfully tried to amend the law to add a fifth permit, also praised Hall. But she said, "If someone else wants to come in and have the same business and is able to ... follow all the regulations, and do the exact kind of building he's going to do, they should have the opportunity. That is my way of thinking."
Any effect the monopoly will have on prices from firecrackers to Roman candles is not clear. Hall said he still has to compete with stands in Glennallen and Valdez and potential online competition, and he has no plans to raise his prices.
Find S.J. Komarnitsky at adn.com/contact/skomarnitsky or call her in Wasilla at 1-907-352-6714.
By S.J. KOMARNITSKY
skomarnitsky@adn.com