WESTBROOK – Next month, residents will get their first look at something Westbrook has never seen before: an ordinance regulating the sale of fireworks in the city.

This year, the Legislature changed the law, effective Jan. 1, 2012, making it legal to sell or use so-called consumer fireworks throughout the state, but allowed local communities to pass their own laws regulating, or possibly even banning the fireworks.

Many communities in Maine, including Portland, South Portland and Lewiston, have enacted bans on sale and use, and other communities, including Bangor, Cape Elizabeth, and Scarborough, are considering similar bans.

Westbrook officials have enacted no such ban, and have put together a draft of an ordinance permitting and regulating sale of fireworks in the city. Councilors, at Monday’s meeting, gave preliminary approval to the ordinance as written. A second reading is still required before the measure becomes law, and that won’t happen until the council’s Dec. 5 meeting, after a public hearing is held on the matter.

The ordinance allows sale of fireworks by dealers who obtain a permit from the city. Among other requirements, the ordinance mandates that dealers have proper state and federal permits, and have to show proof of insurance, as is required by state law.

City Administrator Jerre Bryant said dealers must also comply with other fireworks-specific state laws, such as the law requiring dealers only operate out of stand-alone buildings, with no other tenants.

Under Maine law, consumer fireworks may not include any “missile” products, such as bottle rockets, skyrockets and aerial spinners.

Dan Peart, director of showroom operations for Ohio-based Phantom Fireworks, which already has looked into opening up shop in Scarborough, said officials in towns considering bans “grossly misunderstand” the product.

“A consumer firework does not explode,” he said in a recent interview. “Chemically, it burns. You could take several consumer fireworks, put them in a Dixie cup, and at worst you’d flip the cup.”

Calling Maine’s new law “the Cadillac of fireworks legislation,” Peart pointed out that it does not legalize the aerial fireworks most people are familiar with from Independence Day celebrations, nor the infamous M-80 noisemaker.

So-called “cherry bombs” remain illegal, and should stay so, Peart said, comparing the 3 grams of explosive power in an M-80 to the 50 milliliters in a typical consumer firework by calling it the difference “between two shakes of salt, and the entire shaker.”

The Westbrook council on Monday approved the measure, 5-1, with Councilor Paul Emery casting the lone dissenting vote. Councilor Victor Chau recused himself from the vote, saying he could potentially profit in some way. He did not say how, but in a previous meeting discussing a possible ordinance, Chau recused himself from any votes then, too, stating that he works for a real estate company, and a potential client of his was considering opening a fireworks store.

From the beginning, Emery has voiced his concern that fireworks are far too dangerous, and offer far too little a benefit to the city to make them worth the risk.

“You’re increasing the odds of someone getting hurt,” he said Monday after the meeting.

Council President Brendan Rielly noted the ordinance requires dealers pay a fee to the city for the permit, but that the fee is not specified. Bryant told Rielly that a proper fee schedule would be added to the ordinance prior to the Dec. 5 public hearing.

“Make it a healthy fee,” Rielly said.

The point, he added, was not to penalize dealers, but to reinforce the concern about fireworks safety, and to help fund educational programs provided by the Department of Public Safety.

“There certainly are risks that come with fireworks,” Rielly said.

In addition, Rielly asked that a map be prepared detailing just where fireworks may legally be sold. He said he wanted to make sure fireworks were not being sold too close to a school.

Reporter Duke Harrington also contributed to this story.