5 JULY 4-10, 2024 westword.com WESTWORD | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | Threatening public offi cials, attempting ar- son for hire and being generally obnoxious. Those are just some of the things Denver resident Pete Elliott has been accused of while running a fi reworks business in Lara- mie County, Wyoming. Elliott’s Jurassic Fireworks sits off Inter- state 25 outside of Cheyenne, around three miles from the Colorado border. Fireworks that explode or leave the ground are illegal in the Centennial State, so, as at many Wyoming fi reworks shops, a large portion of Jurassic’s sales are made to customers from Colorado looking to smuggle the festive contraband back home. But Elliott says his status as a Coloradan has led the county to go after his business. In April, Laramie County commission- ers denied the operating permit for Jurassic Fireworks after it had been in business for fi ve years. They also rejected permits for Artillery World Fireworks, which opened down the road from Jurassic in 2022. Both stores are run by Elliott and owned by his daughter, Breanna. “I don’t think these are the kind of peo- ple that I want doing business in Laramie County,” Commissioner Buck Holmes said during the April 16 vote. That’s a sentiment commissioners have expressed regarding El- liott before. At an April 2022 meeting, Holmes told him: “You want to come to Laramie County and be a jerk, go back to Colorado.” Elliott says he’s being discriminated against because of his home state, and that the hateful comments about Colorado from county offi cials go back decades. He thinks the commissioners are colluding with his neighbor and rival, Phan- tom Fireworks, to run him out of Wyoming. “My daughter is scared they’re going to kill one of us,” Elliott says, explaining why he runs the stores on her behalf. “These guys have done everything to destroy us. ... How far does this extend, this hate? Are we going to end up buried in a fi eld somewhere?” Elliott’s adversaries, however, insist the confl ict is more about the “being a jerk” part than the “go back to Colorado” part. Commissioners have accused Elliott of threatening and trying to intimidate them over their opposition to his business. Phan- tom Fireworks says that Elliott’s guerrilla marketing practices approach harassment and have driven their employees to quit. One of the more fi ery (and unsubstanti- ated) rumors suggests that Elliott tried to hire someone to burn down their building. “I will not allow somebody to come into our community and act in that way,” Commis- sioner Gunnar Malm said on May 7 during the board’s most recent meeting on the topic. “It’s not simply a Colorado-versus-Wyoming thing.” Elliott denies almost all of the allegations hurled at him, admitting only to using strong- arm advertising practices that the county and his competition don’t enjoy. But even his most objectionable behavior has been legal, he argues, adding that the county shouldn’t be able to punish his business just because they don’t like him. The fi nal decision now falls to Wyoming’s First Judicial District Court. Elliott’s daugh- ter fi led a petition for review, asking the court to reverse the board’s permit denials. The court issued a preliminary injunction on May 31, allowing the Elliotts to continue operat- ing their fi reworks businesses as they await a ruling, which ensures that the stores will be open for the busy Fourth of July season. “We’re Rosa Parks. And we’re staying on the bus,” Elliott says of the ongoing legal bat- tle. “Whatever it takes to clear our names.” Border Wars Colorado and Wyoming butt heads on numerous issues, EVAN SEMÓN continued on page 6
