LATHROP WELLS -- Last year, Nye County commissioners approved an ordinance allowing towns to designate shooter's sites for people to buy and shoot off fireworks but a site wasn't identified before the busy Fourth of July season.

This year a shooter's site has been found in Lathrop Wells.

Alamo Fireworks will be the first shooter's site in Nye County after county commission approval of a plan adopted by the Amargosa Valley Town Board.

The county ordinance allows a shooter's site to operate only from June 25 through July 4. Fireworks may not be shot off between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. those days, except July 4, when they may be discharged until midnight.

The Amargosa Valley Town Board voted 3-0 April 10 to approve the site, becoming the first town in the county to draw up a list of procedures.

A shooter site may be located only on property owned by the town of Amargosa Valley or leased by it, patrons may use only Class C fireworks, and fireworks cannot be set off while the town of Amargosa Valley has its fireworks show from 9 to 9:30 p.m. July 4.

Sufficient fire suppression capability, approved by the Amargosa Valley Fire Department, must be provided on site.

Nye County Commissioner Joni Eastley said the Amargosa Valley Town Board is interested in expanding the period in which a shooting site can be operational, to perhaps one weekend per month.

Nye County Manager Ron Williams said the ordinance could be changed providing the local fireworks store exercises control of the shooting site.

Eastley said the town board would probably support a longer operating period for the shooter's site since the entry fee would go to the local volunteer fire department.

Representatives of Pahrump fireworks stores applauded the passage of the shooter site ordinance in April 2007. Kelly Bernard, from Outlaw Pyrotechnics, said many customers at her store shopped at the Moapa Valley Indian Reservation off Interstate 15, northeast of Las Vegas, where they can set off the fireworks after buying them.

Stores with fireworks shooting permits will pay a $1,000 fee to compensate the sheriff's department for their time and reimburse the county for any damage under the ordinance.

The shooter's site is a new fireworks business located just north of Nevada Joe's on Highway 95 in Lathrop Wells.

Yeldrig Partners of Nevada, doing business as Alamo Fireworks Inc., was given a conditional use permit for the wholesale and retail sale of fireworks Jan. 15, after county commissioners overcame concerns by the state fire marshal's office about the location a few hundred feet from a gas station and near gate 510 to the Nevada Test Site and Yucca Mountain.

Lawrence Daggett, representing Alamo Fireworks, told commissioners his company would use a 300,000-gallon water tank across Highway 95 for fire prevention. The Amargosa Valley Volunteer Fire department is about a 10 minute drive away.