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Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Covering Dallas, Monmouth, Independence, Falls City and surrounding areas since 1868
Crowds love the annual July 3 fireworks in Falls City. The event is in jeopardy if the Falls City Fire Department can't find additional sponsors and donors.
January 24, 2012
FALLS CITY -- A long-standing Independence Day tradition in Falls City is in danger of ending if it doesn't secure more financial support.
The annual July 3 fireworks show put on by the Falls City Fire Department has become too expensive for the agency to foot the majority of the bill any longer.
Falls City Fire Chief Bob Young said the show costs from $5,500 to $7,000 for fireworks alone. Insurance and incidental expenses -- such as acquiring permits for the show -- related to putting on the display add to the total cost.
In recent years, the city of Falls City has purchased the insurance and donations have pulled in about $1,500 for expenses. But that still leaves a sizable chunk of money that the department has to cover. Young said the last two years, the department has had to dip into its reserve fund to pay for the rest.
"That's $1,500 out of $5,500," Young said. "It doesn't take a mathematician to know that we can't do that for very long."
Falls City Fire Board Secretary Sharon Volk said with the city budget getting tighter, the department can no longer justify the expense as other priorities arise.
"We need that money to buy medical equipment," said Volk, who also is on a committee set up to raise money for the fireworks display.
The group is hoping to find business sponsors or individual donors to help with the cost of putting on the show so the beloved tradition can continue.
"It something we've done for years," she said. "It's blossomed into a huge community event."
Young said if enough money could be raised to cover a little more than half the cost -- about $4,000 -- the department could keep putting on the show.
Young said the display began in the mid-1990s as a gathering of firefighters and their families on July 3. They would all bring fireworks and celebrate the evening before Independence Day as most would have to be on duty the following night.
"We started really small," Young said. "We had people bring fireworks and put on a show in downtown."
It grew into a community event in which the department bought fireworks, trained firefighters to be licensed pyrotechnicians, and purchased a permit to let them off in Falls City's Upper Park each year. Young estimated that 3,000 to 4,000 people watch the display now, either in the park or from vantage points in the surrounding area.
"I think the fire department would like to keep it going," Young said. "But we are all getting older and don't want to have to spend all the money we have saved on fireworks."
For more information or to donate, call Bob Young at 503-910-2414.
ACEBOOK