HONESDALE, WAYNE COUNTY — Two years ago, Honesdale’s police chief offered a blunt assessment of the borough’s ability to crack down on illegal fireworks: officers were “chasing ghosts.”

The complaint was familiar to anyone who’s called police about bottle rockets screaming overhead at midnight. By the time an officer arrives, the culprit is inside, the smoke has cleared, and there’s nothing to cite.

Now Honesdale Borough Council is rewriting its fireworks ordinance—the first significant update since 2018. But whether the new rules will give police any more teeth remains an open question, because the real problem isn’t the borough code. It’s Harrisburg.

What Harrisburg Allows

Pennsylvania legalized consumer-grade fireworks in 2017, and municipalities have been dealing with the fallout ever since. The state kept the tax revenue. Local governments got the complaints.

Council President James Brennan and the six other members haven’t released draft language for the amended ordinance. The borough website says only that council “is in the process of amending the Chapter and application.” No public hearing has been scheduled.

What’s clear is that any changes will operate within tight constraints. Under Act 74 of 2022, boroughs can restrict fireworks discharge to certain hours—but only between 10 p.m. and 10 a.m., and even that shrinks around holidays. On July 2, 3, 4, and New Year’s Eve, residents can legally light up until 1 a.m. The state preempted outright bans entirely.

The Current Rules

The current Honesdale ordinance barely addresses consumer fireworks at all. Chapter 110, adopted in April 2018 under Ordinance No. 682, focuses on professional display permits—the kind the Greater Honesdale Partnership pulls every year for the Fourth of July show off Irving Cliff.

Those permits aren’t cheap or easy. Applicants pay $400 upfront, though $300 comes back if DPW signs off on site restoration. Insurance requirements run to $2 million minimum, with the borough named as additional insured. The fire chief inspects the launch site. Permit holders have to call Wayne County 911 two hours before the first shell goes up and again when the show ends. Drought emergencies cancel everything automatically.

It’s a reasonable framework for organized public displays. It has nothing to say about the guy three doors down who bought a trunk full of Roman candles at the Route 6 fireworks tent.

Efforts to Roll Back

State Rep. Tarah Probst, the Stroudsburg Democrat who served as that borough’s mayor before winning her House seat, introduced legislation in 2023 to ban consumer fireworks sales statewide. She pointed to Honesdale’s enforcement struggles as evidence the 2017 legalization had failed.

The bill went nowhere. The Pennsylvania Municipal League keeps lobbying for repeal. Nothing moves.

So Honesdale, like every other borough in Wayne County and beyond, works with what Harrisburg allows.

What the Update Could Do

The amended ordinance could establish local curfews mirroring the state’s permitted restrictions. It could spell out the 150-foot setback requirement—already state law, but worth reinforcing—that prohibits igniting fireworks within 150 feet of any structure or vehicle regardless of who owns it. Penalties could be clarified: the current code treats violations as summary offenses, up to $1,000 plus costs per incident.

None of that solves the “chasing ghosts” problem. An officer still has to catch someone in the act, and fireworks by their nature don’t leave much evidence behind.

The PyroLand case in South Canaan Township showed how contentious fireworks disputes can get when they reach the courthouse. That involved a commercial display operation and different legal questions than backyard bottle rockets, but the underlying tension was the same: one person’s celebration is another person’s sleepless night, and sound carries a long way across Wayne County’s hills.

For now, consumer fireworks remain legal for anyone 18 or older to purchase from licensed retailers. Legal use requires the property owner’s permission, the 150-foot setback from buildings and vehicles, and sobriety. State police, municipal officers, and sheriffs can confiscate fireworks used in violation.

Honesdale Borough Council meets at Borough Hall, 958 Main Street, second floor. Residents can register for public comment by emailing secretary@honesdaleborough.com or calling 570-253-0731 by noon on meeting days. The borough offers a hybrid virtual option for those who can’t attend in person.

The ordinance amendment will eventually require a public hearing and advertisement before final adoption. Until then, the borough’s fireworks rules remain what they’ve been since 2018: detailed requirements for professional shows, silence on the backyard kind, and police left chasing ghosts.