All,
The purpose of this email is to hopefully clear up some confusion regarding the
situation with our annual fireworks display. Once again this year we are faced
with a tough decision about when to have our fireworks. This is due to the fact
that the company that has done our annual displays for the past 15 years can no
longer accommodate us on the 4th of July as they have in years past. To be clear,
this is NOT due to them finding a "better job" and simply tossing us aside without
regard to our past patronage.
Years ago, the club used to put on our own fireworks displays with volunteers from
the membership. Laws changed and we eventually had to start using a legitimate
fireworks display company. When we hired the company we currently use they already
had a contract to do another larger show every year. To accommodate both shows
(ours being much smaller) the owner of the company would send a small team of his
employees up to do our show while he conducted the other larger show with the rest
of his employees.
Unfortunately, insurance rules have changed again which forbids him from splitting
his team to do two shows. Being forced to make a decision as to do our show or the
other larger contract, it’s really not a hard decision for him to make from a
business perspective. Given the choice, the display company would certainly
choose to do both shows as they have in the past. Given current insurance
requirements, this just isn’t possible however.
So now we must decide between several courses of action:
1) Schedule our display for the 5th of July (Sunday) and run the risk that
the 4th will be rained out which would push our show to Monday the 6th.
2) Try and see if we can have our show on Friday the 3rd although this will
break the tradition of many lake residents who have annual 4th of July parties
scheduled to coincide with the fireworks display.
3) Schedule the show for the following weekend where there is no conflict however
this may be seen as anti-climactic as the holiday has already passed. This
however may prove to be a better choice as it may actually draw a larger crowd
(people who travel for the 4th will be back in town). This would also give
resident an opportunity to schedule their annual parties to once again coincide
with the display.
Given all these difficulties the logical question would be “Why not just find
someone else to do the display?” This sounds like a fairly simple and straight
forward idea however, like many things in this world, it’s just not that simple.
Firstly, our show is very small by comparison to other shows in the area that
take place on the fourth and it’s just not an attractive bid for larger companies.
Secondly the fireworks display industry as a whole is very tight knit and under an
immense amount of scrutiny from local and federal law enforcement authorities,
especially after 9/11. Any new company we tried to hire would likely be very
hesitant to put on the type of show we’re accustomed to given the logistical difficulty
of the launch site (The center Island) and would almost certainly charge a premium
for the show due to these difficulties. Our current display company knows us,
knows our show and does their best to overlook the unique logistical problems our
show poses.
Chuck Behm has been working extremely hard with the display company to get this
situation sorted out for this year and we should have a decision within the next
week or so.
I hope this email has cleared up some of the questions that you may have regarding
this situation. It’s a difficult situation with no easy solution.
Best Regards,
Jeff McKeon
LTCC Board Secretary |
