WESTFIELD – The Westfield Rotary Club Board of Directors voted recently to end its sponsorship of the annual Fireworks for Freedom display.
The Directors said, in a statement to the Westfield News, that the decision “was made after a thorough and careful review of the financial and logistical aspects of the event.”
The Directors of Stanley Park then also voted, according to a source, to cease hosting the event because of the wear and tear on its athletic fields and lawns and because of the extensive cost of clean up after the event.
Community Development Director Peter J. Miller Jr., said “the July 4th fireworks are a tradition that we want to continue.
“We need to work on the logistics and safety issues, and by February, have a solution, including a new organization sponsoring the event,” Miller said.
Part of that planning process is assessing access for a large crowd and parking availability, Miller said.
Miller said that he was contacted by the Rotary, prior to the board decision, about other venues for the event, including Westfield High School and Whitney Field, where it was previously held before moving to Stanley Park.
Miller said that the State Fire Marshal’s Office has promulgated new regulations since the event was held at WHS or Whitney field regulating increasing the setback distance between the crowd and the area from which the fireworks are launched.
Mayor Daniel M. Knapik said that infrastructure upgrades may facilitate using Whitney Field, if the setback zone can be accommodated, for the event.
“The Fire Department hasn’t measured that setback zone yet, so I don’t know if people will be able to sit in the field like we used to when I was a kid,” Knapik said. “So I accelerated the work on the Esplanade and the Overlooks along the Westfield River Levee Walk which could be used as a viewing area.”
“Not that it’s planned (to bring the event to Whitney Field) yet, but with work that’s been done on both sides of the river and shutting down Elm Street, there is a strategy to return the fireworks to the riverfront, but with a different viewing area.
“The question now is who would be the sponsor, what entity would be willing to pick this up,” Knapik said. “Many of the types of organizations, such as the JCees, that have sponsored the event in the past no longer exist, so we may be looking for a different entity to the service clubs which have sponsored it recently.”
The event has been sponsored by the Rotary, which handed it of to the Kiwanis Club, which handed it back to the Rotary, and for several years during the term of Mayor Richard K. Sullivan Jr. the event was organized by private citizens.
A City Hall source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the cost of the fireworks, not including city police for crowd and traffic control, and firefighter costs, is over $20,000.
Here is the Rotary statement:
The Board of Directors of the Rotary Club of Westfield has decided to discontinue organizing the annual Fireworks for Freedom event.
This decision was made after a thorough and careful review of the financial and logistical aspects of the event. We have determined that the fireworks event is just too much for a club of our size in terms of the human resources necessary to put them on and in terms of the fundraising necessary to sustain them.
We sincerely appreciate the generosity of the businesses and citizens of Westfield who have supported this event over the past several years. We wish to thank Stanley Park for being a gracious host, as well as the City of Westfield, including the Mayor, the Westfield Police Department, the Westfield Fire Department, and all others involved for their dedication to supporting community events.
We hope you will understand the circumstances under which we have taken this decision.
Thank you.
Rotary Club of Westfield
