A proposal to reduce the number of days to legally ignite Fourth of July fireworks in unincorporated Pierce County went down to defeat with a thud today.

Dick Muri was the only Pierce County Council member to vote for his proposal to cut the number of days from eight to one: the holiday itself.

Several council members said restricting fireworks further was unenforceable.

“We can’t enforce the current statutes,” said council member Roger Bush. The county doesn’t have the manpower and resources to back up a stricter law, Bush said.

Council member Rick Talbert said Muri’s plan would unrealistically …

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The city of Lakewood is looking to trim about $1 million from its budget as revenues have come in lower than expected, a city spokesman said today.

City Manager Andrew Neiditz will share details on how he intends to close the projected shortfall at tonight’s City Council meeting.

His presentation comes more than two months after the council adjusted the budget by $14,000 midway through the two-year financial cycle.

Neiditz told the council on Jan. 17 that the projected shortfall represents 3 percent of the city’s $38 million general fund, according to the minutes from the meeting.

He told the …

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Three Lakewood City Council members will begin meeting Thursday to consider asking voters to pay a fee for street upkeep.

In November, a citizen advisory committee recommended the council ask voters to form a transportation benefit district and add $40 to their annual vehicle license renewal.

The fee would generate an estimated $1.8 million a year for the city of Lakewood. The committee recommended that $1.35 million annually be dedicated to maintaining streets and the remaining $450,000 each year be set aside for road improvement projects, likely to secure grant funding.

The council waited to take up the matter …

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Lakewood businesses that sustained damage during last week’s winter storm are encouraged to contact city officials as they might be eligible for federal assistance.

The city is attempting to determine how many and to what extent the businesses incurred either lost revenue or property damage as a result of the severe weather.

If the amount of damage reaches a certain dollar threshold, the U.S. Small Business Administration may be available to help businesses recover from the damages.

The city asking businesses that incurred damages to complete a worksheet that estimates adverse economic impact and property damage. The worksheet can be …

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The longest-serving members of the city councils for Lakewood and University Place also are the mayors for their respective cities.

The Lakewood City Council returned Doug Richardson to the mayor’s seat for a third consecutive two-year term with a unanimous vote Tuesday night. At about the same time, the University Place City Council selected Ken Grassi to serve as mayor for a second time. Voters elected both men to their respective councils before the cities of Lakewood and University Place incorporated in the mid-1990s.

The mayor is a mainly a figurehead in Lakewood’s and University Place’s council-manager form of government. …

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The ongoing controversy over the efforts by the Washington Military Department to move Camp Murray’s main gate deeper into the Tillicum neighborhood was voted the top news story of the year in West Pierce County.

Although I was hoping to see a lot more votes, the Camp Murray gate story was voted tops by an overwhelming margin.

David Anderson, president of the Tillicum-Woodbrook Neighborhood Association, had put out a request for residents in the neighborhood and others to cast their votes for the story.

The extension of sanitary sewer into Tillicum and Woodbrook took the No. 2 spot.

Efforts to …

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It’s coming down to the same old arguments as Pierce County and its cities weigh the formation of a countywide taxing district for flood control.

Officials from DuPont, Lakewood and Steilacoom questioned Monday night why the proposed flood control district should assess the same tax rate countywide when residents in some areas would benefit from its projects more than those living in other areas.

Lakewood City Councilman Michael Brandstetter said establishing a blanket rate “seems arbitrary given where the risk is” and favored asking property owners in the Puyallup River watershed to pay more given they’ll receive the …

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Tacoma-Pierce County Habitat for Humanity made room Tuesday for its first townhouse development.

The low-income housing provider joined city officials for the demolition of the blighted Woodlawn Cottages in Lakewood’s Tillicum neighborhood. Habitat will construct eight townhomes in its place, starting in early 2013, on Commercial Street near Harry Todd Community Park.

Habitat has committed to construct up to 33 homes in one of Lakewood’s poorest neighborhoods. It has started construction of two single-family homes elsewhere in Tillicum.

It has developed some duplexes in the past but it traditionally builds single-family homes. The organization’s move to townhomes recognizes that people …

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