The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Joint fireworks display proposed
PORTLAND » The annual fireworks display will not take place as hoped this Saturday. But officials say they are trying to find a date so the show can go on this year.
Indeed, Sharon Hoy, the chairwoman of the Fireworks Committee was emphatic in an email Sunday: “We will have fireworks this year,” she said.
Meanwhile, First Selectwoman Susan S. Bransfield has approached Cromwell’s town manager about possibly arranging a joint cross-river celebration centered around the fireworks display.
Beginning in 2018, Bransfield said she hopes Cromwell and Portland can cooperate on a cross-river joint celebration.
“We do share the Connecticut River, and our riverfront park and their riverfront park (Frisbie Landing) are almost exactly across the river from one another,” Bransfield said.
The committee envisions “having a festival on both sides of the river with fireworks (being shot off from) a barge,” Hoy said.
In recent years, relying in large part on grants, Portland has created its own riverfront park, which includes a performance venue, at the end of Middlesex Avenue, and within sight of the Brownstone Exploration and Discovery Park.
Bransfield said she spoke with Cromwell Manager Anthony J. Salvatore last week about the idea of a crossriver celebration.
“Mrs. Bransfield made a suggestion, and frankly, I thought it was pretty good idea, for the two towns to take a look at it,” Salvatore said last week. “However, this is something I have to take to the Town Council for their consideration.”
For years, Cromwell held a “Riverport Festival,” intended to celebrate the town’s connection to the Connecticut River. It was also intended to help lure people back to the historic downtown that is centered in and around the intersection of Main and West streets.
In 2014, the festival went into hiatus, with organizers explaining too few people had come forward to help keep it going.
The Portland display has traditionally been set off from the Exchange Club fairgrounds. However, that lowlying property is susceptible to flooding and is slow to dry out. Over the years, several displays have been cancelled because of those problems.
Last year’s fireworks display was cancelled because of inadequate fundraising. It costs approximately $30,000 to put on the annual display: $20,000 for the fireworks, and $10,000 for other costs including paying for insurance, permits, fees and police coverage the night of the display.
Last year, the fireworks committee was only able to raise just under $10,000.
However, through an aggressive campaign, the committee this year had $27,000 in hand by mid-August, Bransfield said.
The money is kept in a restricted “fireworks fund,” Bransfield said.
“The committee worked very hard over the course of the past year,” Bransfield said, as she also praised and thanked “the generosity of the residents of Portland. We’re still going to try and do a 2017 show.”
There is concern that if the fireworks display does not go off for two years in a row, the long-time local tradition could just wither away.
The fireworks committee had hoped to link this year’s display to the annual Family Day Saturday on the Town Green on Main Street from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. However, officials were not able to get all the necessary parts in place in time.
The committee is scheduled to meet Tuesday night to discuss and decide upon an alternative date.
Last year’s fireworks display was cancelled because of inadequate fundraising. It costs approximately $30,000 to put on the annual display: $20,000 for the fireworks, and $10,000 for other costs.