The fireworks that were building between Laramie County and a group of fireworks businessesjust north of the Wyoming-Colorado border on Interstate 25 appear to have fizzled.
Laramie County Commissioners on Tuesday voted to approve several fireworks permits, including ones for Jurassic and Artillery World Fireworks. They are part of Seasonal Sales Inc. and owned by Breanna Elliott.
County officials have described the fireworks businesses as “obnoxious” over some of the loud marketing techniques. Those include bullhorns advising customers not to go to a particular competitor’s business.
Laramie County Commissioner Gunnar Malm told Cowboy State Daily that, going forward, those kinds of tactics are no longer allowed for any fireworks vendors.
The terms of those restrictions are identical to those used by a Laramie County court, after a judgelast year ordered Laramie County to issue the businesses a fireworks permit. The order was meant to preserve the status quo during a lawsuit Elliott had filed against Laramie County, alleging unfair treatment and arbitrary and capricious behavior.
“Those were included on all applicants for this year,” Malm said. “And we’ll just include those going forward on all applicants that have applied for a fireworks license.”
Pete Elliott Required To Stay Away
Malm said the approval of the contested fireworks licenses came after a couple of weeks of negotiations with the Elliotts.
As part of that agreement, Breanna’s father, Pete Elliott, has agreed to step away from managerial positions, and is no longer allowed to be within 300 yards of the businesses.
The agreement also stipulated that Breanna Elliott must drop all active court cases against the county.
Malm said the county had actually won the court case Breanna Elliott had filed against them, so the agreement was about pursuing any appeal of the cases she had filed.
“We’re going to certainly keep an eye (on the businesses),” Malm said. “And I’m sure those around the community who have been impacted by the businesses practices in the past will also be monitoring it and let us know. If there’s a violation, we will have a hearing, and if they’re shown to be in violation of any terms they’ve agreed to, their licenses will be revoked.”
Disappointed With Outcome
Pete Elliott, reached by phone, said he was disappointed with the outcome and said that he still feels strong-armed by the county.
“It’s great my daughter’s open and so hopefully she gets to run her business,” he said. “But now you’ve alienated me from my daughter. I’m the protector of my children, so I hope to God nothing happens to my children, because I’m not there to protect them.”
Elliott said that even adult children sometimes need a little help, and he recalled a time he saved his adult son’s life, by getting him to the fire department in the nick of time.
“Imagine someone telling you that you can’t … help your daughter run her business,” he said.
Elliott has not denied that he’s at times stood outside of the fireworks businesses that are now operated by his daughter Breanna, yelling and waving flags to attract customers.
He characterized his actions as a defense mechanism to fight back against false claims he said competitors had made about Jurassic and Artillery World fireworks.
The technique started some time ago, he added, back when he had a business up on College Drive that was competing with other fireworks stands.
“We got rained out really bad one year,” he said. “And there’s like a little pond right in front of our fireworks down there. The other company kept telling everybody that our fireworks were all wet.”
Elliott used a bullhorn to tell prospective customers that was not true.
Lost For Words
As part of his daughter’s agreement with the county, Elliott was required to relinquish some of the rights to his own corporation, and he doesn’t feel particularly good about it.
“When you believe in the Constitution and you believe in integrity and honesty and you’re trying to get that to come out,” he said. “And it’s been a lynching for no reason … I’m lost for words.”
Elliott has said previously he believes that his businesses in Laramie County were being discriminated against for being a Colorado-owned business.
He still believes that to be the case, he told Cowboy State Daily and suggested he’s still considering his own, separate legal options for what he said are serious, false accusations and defamation of his character.
“I can show facts all day long and everything,” he said. “But it just doesn’t seem like people care about that.”
But he added, just thinking about it still makes him very emotional.
“Imagine that what I’m telling you is accurate,” he said. “Imagine living with that, like you can’t live with it. You can’t go to your grave, a place of resting, with a bunch of scars if you don’t try to do everything to make sure it doesn’t happen to the next guy.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
