The Broken Arrow First Church of the Nazarene had a fireworks stand set-up at 111th and Yale but were shut down. This church has been doing fireworks stands as a fundraiser for about 20 years now, but they had to change locations this year and it just so happened to be inside Tulsa city limits.
"It's all out of our hands. You don't really have any control. It's the powers, that be they are, the ones dealing with the issues," said the children's pastor Eric Macomber.
The church was running the stand for TNT fireworks, but their normal location was no longer available, so TNT moved them to the 111th and Yale booth. However, that was against the law.
"You cannot possess or sell or operate fireworks within the City of Tulsa," says Chief of Staff Jarred Brejcha.
But the stand is also on tribal land, so the City of Tulsa can't enforce the law on the land for them not to sell the fireworks. But as soon as the customer leaves with their fireworks, the person can be hit with a fine.
"We were contacted by citizens as well as the city councilor from that district," says Brejcha.
It doesn't matter who made the call to the city. Now without the money from this year's fireworks stand, the church's mission trips and church camp could be in jeopardy.
"The thing with fireworks is that we can run a fundraiser for two weeks and make enough money for the kids to do all the things they are going to do throughout the year," said Macomber.
Even though the church has already put in 300 man hours and about $2,000, right now they are just looking out for their customers. Macomber says he doesn't want to see the customers get in trouble or have their fireworks taken away simply for buying from the church's stand.
The City will be working with TNT and the church to find another location for them to operate.
