Despite scores of complaints from residents annoyed by widespread blasts of illegal fireworks over the holiday weekend, Evanston police say they only issued one citation for the offense on the Fourth of July holiday.
Alderman Ann Rainey, posting on her 8th Ward message board, said she spent Independence Day evening with friends in the 6th Ward in northwest Evanston.
“Never in my life have I heard such bombs. Within a block from the house a constant barrage of firepower, no let-up, we couldn’t hear one another talk,” Rainey wrote.
“There was not one neighborhood free of the noise,” she said, adding “There was no way short of calling out the National Guard that these fireworks could have been placed under control.”
Some residents commenting on the issue complained that police should have done more, but others said it made sense for police to not waste their efforts on the problem. With people not able to celebrate the holiday like they usually do, a lot of people’s money “went into fireworks this year.”