SANTA CLARITA TO WEIGH BANNING USE OF SILLY STRING AT PUBLIC EVENTS.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

It goes by the names String Confetti, Streamer String and Super String, but city officials see the aerosol foam as a gooey mess and have proposed a ban that the City Council will consider tonight.

Although the sale and private use of the silly-string-type products would not be illegal in Santa Clarita, the proposed ban pertains to use that would be harmful or interfere with public events, such as parades and carnivals.

The cities of Pasadena, Santa Barbara and San Juan Capistrano already have so-called ``silly string ordinances'' on the books.

Pasadena adopted its city ordinance in July 1992 to combat the sticky mess left behind by spectators of the annual Doo Dah and Tournament of Roses parades.

The impetus for the proposed Santa Clarita law was the Independence Day parade last month, according to the report by John Danielson, manager of the city Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department.

The proposed Santa Clarita ordinance also would apply to disruptive use of high volume water guns, which Danielson said were a source of many complaints about the parade.

Complaints poured into City Hall in the weeks after the parade, Danielson said. ``The city received numerous communications from local organizations with regards to silly string and other objects inhibiting both the safety and progress of the Fourth of July parade,'' Danielson's report stated.

``Requests were made to adopt and pass an ordinance . . . banning the sale and use of such items.''

The Santa Clarita Municipal Code would set penalties of up to six months in county jail or a $1,000 fine for violation of the misdemeanor offense.

In Pasadena, squirting the brightly colored string, flinging tortillas and hurling marshmallows had become holiday traditions among Doo Dah and Rose Parade revelers.

City officials were afraid the objects could hurt somebody and spook the horses, and they knew the muck was damaging car paint jobs and dirtying up city streets.

``Once it melts into the porous cement, it's almost impossible to get off without steam-cleaning,'' said Larry Newberry, the assistant city attorney who wrote Pasadena's ordinance four years ago.

Newberry said the law, which subjected Pasadena to derision when City Council members debated, and ultimately passed it, has been a success in that it discourages troublemakers.

``We've never had a situation in which anyone was injured by silly string, but we have had a lot of complaints of property damage,'' Newberry said.

Paradegoers still bring the contraband aerosol foam, tortillas and marshmallows to the parades, but they know police officers will confiscate them. Newberry said he couldn't recall anybody actually cited, fined or jailed for use or possession of the items.

``People are being a lot more careful, they're not leaving it where it's going to be seen by a police officer,'' Newberry said. ``That has cut down the incidence of property damage enormously.''

Since Pasadena's ordinance was adopted, the crews that have to clean 5.5 miles of Orange Grove, Colorado and Sierra Madre boulevards have begun the new year with a slightly less daunting task, the assistant city attorney added.

``It has made a lot of difference, because we don't have to go around after the parade steam-cleaning the sidewalks,'' Newberry said. ``That was a huge expenditure, because it's a long parade route.''

Several local shops carry the products. The Grabag in Canyon Country sells Streamer String, made by an Elmsford, N.Y. company.

Toy Attic in Newhall and Kay-Bee Toys in the Valencia Town Center sell Super String 2, manufactured by E. Davis Inc. in Piscataway, N.J. Lina Costanzo, a vice president at the New Jersey company, declined comment on Santa Clarita's proposed ban of the product.

Toys `R' Us outlets carry String Confetti, distributed by Fun World, a division of Easter Unlimited in Carle Place, N.Y.

``I think it's a product, that, when used properly, allows for some innocent fun,'' said Gary Abrams, product developer for the New York company who oversees the merchandising of the product.

String Confetti sells in 3-ounce, pressurized cans and comes in several shades, including green, yellow and red. ``It's a plastic-foam product, an acrylic polymer that is converted into a foam as it exits the can. One of the most important characteristics is that the product is nonflammable,'' Abrams said.

``This stuff is not sticky and gooey, in my opinion,'' the toy designer added. ``As it travels through the air and lands, it is completely dry. The longer it stays on the road, actually the more brittle it becomes.''

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Photo

Photo: (Color) Julie Lemburg, a partner in The Grabag in Ca nyon Country, demonstrates the use of a can of silly string.

Bob Halvorsen/Daily News