Bleak economy doesn't darken local fireworks displays

By Lisa Byers

July 02, 2009 12:18 am

— Nine-year-old Austin Hamilton needed very little time to decide what his favorite thing is about fireworks.
“When they blast up into the air,” the Meadville youngster said.
“You mean the beginning?” his grandma, Margaret Hamilton, asked.
“Yep,” he answered, his eyes beaming.
Attending firework displays is a yearly tradition for Margaret Hamilton and her family. This year, the Hamilton family will travel to Pittsburgh to attend the Three Rivers Regatta at Point State Park where a performance by Three Dog Night will be followed by a large fireworks show.
“We make it a point to go every year,” Margaret Hamilton said. “It’s something that we do. It’s a family tradition and a national tradition.
“We’re a pretty patriotic family.”
And families looking to take in a fireworks display locally this 4th of July weekend will have plenty to choose from — unlike some other areas of the country where the economy is taking a bite out of their sky shows.
In the Crawford County region, on Friday night, both Canadohta Lake in northeast Crawford, and Waldameer Park in Erie will have fireworks.
Visitors to Pymatuning Dam in Jamestown will have fireworks Saturday, the same day Waldameer will offer a second show.
And on Sunday, there are two shows near Meadville:
n Conneaut Lake Park will wrap up a weekend of festivities with a fireworks display off the grass pier outside Hotel Conneaut, which is being put on by Park Restoration, LLC and Lisko & Sons Amusements. Greg Sutterlin, of Park Restoration, LLC, said a portion of the proceeds from parking will go toward helping to pay for the fireworks.
n The Movies at Meadville will have a Sunset Dance with DJ Jimmy from 8 to 11 p.m. with fireworks set to go off at 10 p.m. The theater will have hot dogs and soda for a dollar.
While there are plenty of options locally for fireworks, that is not the case everywhere where many shows are being canceled or scaled back due to the economy.
Budget realities are forcing communities to decide, for example, whether they can pay for extra police and fire protection for a fireworks show — or perhaps pay an officer’s salary for the rest of the year. And some organizers have concerns about seeking money for a celebration as communities struggle to take care of life-or-death needs worsened by the recession.
In some cases, it’s not just the fireworks shows getting the ax. Municipal and corporate sponsors, forced into frugality by the tough economy, have reduced or pulled funding for whole festivals encompassing music, food and other staples of summer.
Fireworks fans acknowledge the tough realities, but also say free fireworks shows aren’t frivolous — rather, that they’re a nearly sacred institution.
“The economic calamity that has hit the nation is something that we can understand,” Dave Richmond, 41, of Parma, Ohio, wrote in an e-mail after the city decided it couldn’t justify a $25,000 fireworks show amid a tax revenue shortfall of $2.4 million and furloughs of city workers. But “we feel jaded and very disappointed that a celebration of what our Founding Fathers worked so hard to give us is squandered by those who collect and spend our tax dollars.” Richmond has attended the celebration since 1972.
Some fireworks companies have reported that business is off about 10 percent from last year, said Julie L. Heckman, executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association, an industry group.
“We’ve not seen communities struggle to the level that they are this year to be able to fund their shows,” she said.
Shows are being canceled from sea to shining sea:
An Associated Press survey found that traditional festivals and fireworks displays, normally costing organizers tens of thousands of dollars to present each year, have been canceled this year in San Jose, Calif.; Charlottesville, Va.; Hialeah, Fla.; Mesa, Ariz.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; Niceville, Fla.; and Garland, Texas.
Stephen Vitale, president of Pennsylvania-based Pyrotecnico, said while his company is doing more shows this year because the holiday falls on a weekend, it’s clear that communities are struggling to pay for displays.
“They fight real hard to keep it when they can,” Vitale said.
Still, there will be an estimated 14,000 firework displays this year.

Lisa Byers can be reached at 724-6370, ext. 277 or by e-mail at lbyers@meadvilletribune.com. Associated Press contributed to this report.

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