No Fireworks This Year

I hate to report sad news, I really do, especially when it involves our sweet town.

Did you hear that there wouldn't be any fireworks this year? Yup, it's true. Had the Oktoberfest beer garden and fireworks happened this year it would have been last weekend.

So here's my understanding of what happened. 1.) Rotary didn't get approval from Mill & Main in time (it's easy to forget that this event happens on private property). That meant that 2.) safety permits weren't issued in time. Which led to 3.) not being able to be contract a fireworks company in time. But a bigger, overall issue is 4.) that the Rotary Club, as a civic organization, doesn't have enough membership to handle the volunteer work that this project takes.

There are ramifications of not having the Oktoberfest event. The funds raised from hosting the beer garden are what pays for our Christmas parade. Don't panic just yet. My understanding is that, though there will be no Oktoberfest, the parade will still happen in 2016. It just might not happen next year.

So now we all need to start putting our heads together and try to figure out how to make these two very dear events happen in the future. We can't just let them slip away. And don't forget that it takes volunteers—lots of them—to make these things happen. If it's just a handful of people, they will get burned out and give up. If the call goes out for volunteers, consider adding your name to the list.