Fireworks will be legal this season in Upshur County, after the Commissioners Court took no action on an agenda item dealing with their ban Wednesday.

The item was on the Nov. 30 agenda because a ban would have to be implemented by Dec. 14, and the court is not scheduled to meet again until Dec. 15.

Dan Miles, a member of the audience at the Wednesday meeting, spoke against banning fireworks.

“A lot of people in Upshur County depend on fireworks sales as their seasonal employment,” he said. “You’d be jumping the gun a little bit.”

At a Nov. 14 meeting the court lifted a months-long ban on outdoor burning, because of recent rains.

The commissioners voted unanimously to ban smoking at the south entrance to the courthouse, a popular spot with smokers employed there.

County Clerk Brandy Lee had requested the ban, because her office is near that entrance, and when she has windows open, a draft pulls the smoke into her and her employees’ work area.

The court authorized Judge Dean Fowler to take steps toward applying for a Texas Historical Commission grant to restore the courthouse as much as possible to the way it was in 1937.

If the county gets the 80 percent matching grant on the $7.5 million project, offices at the courthouse would have to be scattered in rented locations around Gilmer.