Lompoc’s city council cancels annual fireworks show

By Glenn Wallace/Staff Writer
There will be no rockets’ red glare this year for Lompoc on the Fourth of July.Citing an ongoing budget deficit, the City Council voted 3-2 last week to cancel the annual fireworks show the city usually organizes at Lompoc High School’s Huyck Stadium.The cancellation was for the next two years, and was expected to save the city a total of $21,000.The Fourth of July Spectacular, featuring hundreds of fireworks choreographed to patriotic music, regularly drew over 6,000 spectators, and was watched by countless other Lompoc residents watching from surrounding homes.“I’m literally shocked we may be losing this,” DeWees said prior to the vote, which took place during the second consecutive day of budgetary cuts last week.Councilman Bob Lingl said he made the motion to cut the Fourth of July funding as a way of closing the city’s $4.3 million two-year budget deficit.Contacted by phone this week, Lingl said as one of his campaign promises, he pledged to balance the budget without touching “necessities” such as police, fire and city infrastructure.
“This year we just don’t have money left over for things like the fireworks display,” he said.DeWees and Councilwoman Ann Ruhge voted against cutting funding for the event.After the vote, Ruhge said she could see the community rallying around the event, and trying to raise the show funds, but Parks and Recreation Director Dan McCaffrey cautioned that it was likely too late in the year to raise the money and finalize the contract with the pyrotechnics company.McCaffrey said the recreation division plans to cancel this year’s show, and to begin “hitting it hard” to ensure the city hosts a fireworks show next year.“Could the community raise the funds? We’d love to go that direction next year,” McCaffrey said.“We’re looking forward to this project re-emerging in our community,” he added.This will not be the first time a lack of funds caused Independence Day celebratory cutbacks in the city. The Chamber of Commerce-sponsored Lompoc’s Old Fashioned Fourth of July Celebration, which featured a performance by the Lompoc Pops Orchestra and a children’s parade, was canceled in 2004, when grant funding ran out.Joe McCormick, commander for Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 570, called the cut of the fireworks unfortunate but not unexpected.“With the budget being tight everywhere else, I’m not surprised,” McCormick said.McCormick, who serves on the Lompoc Veteran’s Council, said he hopes a contingency plan to celebrate Independence Day emerges.

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