It’s as if a stash of July 4 fireworks keeps smoldering somewhere under Flagler Beach, looking for a burst skyward–and getting snuffed out at every turn. Some Flagler Beach city commissioners and members of the business community are not happy with the uncertainty. So the commission will hold a workshop on the matter for still more talk, to hear from the public and to figure out of fireworks could return to the pier for the first time in five years come July 4.
It’s been four and a half years since Flagler Beach last had one of its erstwhile iconic Independence Day firework shows. It’s been over two years since the commission adopted the conclusions of a its advisory panel’s report. That committee found July 4 fireworks as essential a part of the city’s holiday fabric and municipal identity as the traditional parade and Veterans Park party that used to take place that day. The committee had been silent on New Year’s Eve fireworks, but had decisively settled the July 4 question. The chairman of that committee now sits on the commission.
Yet since then, there’s been one fireworks display, last New Year’s Eve, and there’s no money and no plans for July 4 fireworks. “Unless there’s direction otherwise from the city commission to pursue Fourth of July fireworks, there is nothing included in the budget at this time,” City Manager Dale Martin told the commission. Martin went further. When the commission chair noted that there’s a lot more that happens in Flagler Beach on July 4, other than fireworks, Martin said: “There’s been no activity whatsoever with Fourth of July activities.”
Dark skies over the ocean on July 4 don’t sit well with Commissioner Jane Mealy, who pushes for July 4 fireworks every chance she gets, as she did so again at last Thursday’s commission meeting. Last New Year’s Eve’s hurriedly arranged fireworks got raves all around, but even as she voted to approve a three-year contract to repeat the feat next December, she doubts it will be, “because the pier won’t be there.” She wanted the city to find a way to come up with the money for fireworks on July 4, in just four months. “I know it means a lot to people,” she said. ” I went to the one at the county. It did not feel like anything to me. It wasn’t Flagler Beach thing.” The county and Palm Coast cooperate on a big fireworks show at the county airport every year.
John Lulgjuraj, the business owner and chair of a city business task force, had the same “ask,” as he called it, for commissioners. Referring to the July 4 committee’s conclusions, he said of July 4 fireworks that “consensus wise it was supposed to be a go, we all wanted it again. And now there hasn’t been too much clarification on what’s going on with Fourth of July specifically.” He said the business community didn’t have much time to get ready for the New Year’s Eve fireworks, “but every time I ask for feedback regarding that specific event, I keep hearing: what about Fourth of July?”
The recurring questions prompted City Commissioner James Sherman to propose the workshop. “I’m all ears,” he said. “I think Commissioner Mealy makes a fantastic point about some things, the unknown future of what might be coming our way.”
Last Thursday the commission approved a three-year, $94,000 contract with My Three Sons, the Boynton Beach company that produced the New Year’s Eve fireworks, for the next three New Year’s Eve productions. The payments are due on Sept. 1 and Dec. 31 for each display, giving the city room to determine whether there would be a display that year. Even if the city were to make a payment and for some reason the display isn’t possible, the company would have to refund the money. Either way, the city will not be in breach of contract. The budgeted amount for this year is $30,000.
It was the contract that had raised Mealy’s questions. She doesn’t see how there could be fireworks in December, without a pier, so she suggested using the money instead, from one source or another, for July 4, when the pier is still expected to be there. Put another way, the New Year’s Eve show and that payment would be moved up to July 4. (The pier has been condemned. But its structure closest to land is still solid, which enabled My Three Sons to set off fireworks there on Dec. 31, with the required 300-ft safety radius. When the pier is demolished, only the first 100 feet of the structure will be preserved for historic value, so that radius will disappear.)
Mealy’s proposal set off Commission Chair Eric Cooley (as Mealy and Cooley are frequently set off by each other). “We are turning this agenda item into a completely different item,” he said. Mealy disagreed. She wanted clarity on where money might come from for July 4: even at the coming workshop, commissioners are going to need to know where the money would come from if there is a way to make the July 4 display possible.
“We gave direction to the city manager to fix a problem and he fixed it,” Commissioner Scott Spradley. “I am supporting this contract as I did the last time. I was chair of the Fourth of July committee, and there was complete unanimity on wanting to have July 4 fireworks if we can have them. But I can’t mix that with this. We’re going to have a workshop on July 4. I will be there supporting July 4 fireworks if there’s any way. But for this agenda item, I support this contract as I did last time.”
The commission unanimously approved the contract with My Three Sons.
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