The Official Unofficial Minutes of the WL BOA
July 6th
So commented Police Chief Gary during the post mortem of the 4th fireworks display at the BOA meeting (I didn't get a chance to ask him if he was referring to this year or last year). Mayor Jerry praised Tanya's efforts and requested a "motion of gratitude" from the BOA which was promptly motioned by Vic and unanimously passed by his colleagues.
Both Jerry and Tanya offered the reason of the potential of keeping the dam road closed for another 24 hours as the reason to blow up the fireworks on the 4th rather than wait until the 5th. (Kind of odd, because as noted previously, Alderman Finn mentioned last Friday the 5th as the "rain date".) Other reasons included the difficulty in keeping the munitions dry and the computers dry as well. One audience member asked why the WLIC "robo call" system wasn't used to advise the community of the situation. No response from the BOA or Mayor, but Tom Henke mentioned the calls go to home phones and many folks may not have been home.
Alderman Hoy suggested a committee be formed to manage the fireworks as well as all of the other events of the 4th weekend (ie, parade on the 3rd/4th/3rd). Another idea was to "direct the Park Board" to take over the event management.
Jerry offered City Hall received "much more positive calls" than negative regarding the fireworks display. It was stated fund raising for the fireworks was 75% of goal to which Alderman Hoy observed it was unlikely the goal would be met.
In case you missed the action on the 4th, click the link to view some of last year's celebration.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y_e4WchMNw
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15 comments:
Mike, this has to be a joke, right? If not, we have more than our fair share of idiots at City Hall.
Unbelievable. I will never give to the fireworks fund again. Dishonesty and/or pure lack of regard for the majority of the community who saw part or nothing of the fireworks. Sheds a whole new different light for me on our mayor, aldermen, and police chief. Unbelievable.
CYA.
Wow! One crappy 4th and the claws come out! Did any of you think to contact an alderman and ask what the plan might be? We all knew that bad weather was in the forecast. I did. I was aware. And that's why my guests and I didn't miss a rocket. Unfortunate that many still need to be babied.
One lackluster event and now the cry for ANOTHER city committee? God help us. It would be the same people making the same decisions anyway, just with a more formal title. It's worked quite well under Tanya for YEARS. She does a fantastic service for us. Leave it alone and focus on more important city issues.
I agree with 5:44am and 6:33am. With all of the reasons mentioned that led to a decision by Tanya to go ahead and light the candle the one missing answer for me is, "why do we have a rain date if it cannot be used"? By the way, the fact the fireworks were good does not make any of us feel better for not having seen them!!!
The one potential silver lining in all of this MESS is that it gives the community and board a chance to reflect on its own protocols or lack thereof with regard of what to do about rain delays and whether fireworks should be shot or not. Perhaps instead of one individual being in charge of making this decision, it ought to be several. As it was, one person (Tanya) was likely hammered with phone calls and feeling a lot of pressure. This type of situation leads to decisions perhaps not best made by a single individual but rather, a committee of people who can use their protocols to guide them.
Starting with the confusion of the day the parade would take place (shouldn't it always be on July 4th!) to fireworks that were shot in pouring rain, this year's July 4th activities were a huge disappointment (other than the great job the Pierces did on the noodle float). There is an idea, let's give the fireworks and July 4th planning to someone like the Pierces who seem to know how to manage a celebration!
To anon 10:30am, if this was not the biggest celebration of the year in WL maybe you would be right. AND if this had not been a blow up of over $12,000 in fireworks that no one SAW, it would not be as big a deal. Just my opinion!
I've lived here over 15+ years and this is the first time we've had a rain event on 4th like this. Was it handled the best? Who knows. Some saw it and were happy, some did not and were not. So lets learn from it and move on. Anon 5:44 and 6:33 Im glad I dont know you because you sound very mean spirited. You probably dont give anything to the fireworks fund to begin with and now feel justified in your cheapness. What a bunch of ungrateful crybabies. Shame on you both.
3:16, you’re one of the problems in this community. This is the point you’re missing. You’re dead wrong. Significant money was given by those who truly look at the 4th of July as a big family and friend celebration. Weatherby Lake is known for their fantastic fireworks. Tremendous disappointment is out there on how it was handled. If Tanya Finn (or whoever made the decision) said with honesty and integrity they made a wrong call, then no one can blame someone for simply being human. But the decision was made as if the community was a second class citizen followed by sugar coating it with mistruths, i.e. "Mayor received more positive than negative calls". For your information, Tanya Finn has NOT been managing the fireworks fund for years. (How quickly you have forgotten the Woodwards). What happened to the July 5th “rain date” she stated on Friday? Shame on you for treating the community’s dissappoint and opinions as worthless.
No one said the community's opinions were worthless. Apparently you are part of the problem as well since you are twisting the comments to give them a negative slant. Of course people were disappointed. Of course we all look forward to the fireworks. But to suggest that the decision was made by Tanya Finn without any regard to the community or the impact is really a horrible thing to say. We had one bad year out of how many numerous good 4ths and now you and a few other malcontents are throwing daggars. Take a look in the mirror 9:22. And be ashamed.
Tanya Finn made the decision, that much is known and undisputed. Did she make the right call? Well, to be fair, you probably ought to give her a call and give her a chance to explain. I have several issues with the way this was handled and one of them IS that Tanya should not have made that decision alone. It should have been a committee that is responsible for looking at all sides of the issue and determining what is best. Personally I think the contractor bamboozled her into believing something that simply was not true...I believe they just wanted to shoot them off and be done with this job. There was nothing in it for them to wait.
If the fireworks contractor signed a contract with a rain date then they ought NOT to tell us they cannot wait another night because the fireworks will not be safe, we may get less quality of a display if they wait or that the computers that set them off may get damaged.
At the end of the day, it gets down to one simple and easy to understand fact. Very, very few people saw the fireworks AND the whole reason to fire them off is for people to see them. If people cannot or did not see them there is very little point in agreeing to letting them light them. We also lack a system whereby they can let people know what is happening. That should be fixed, but really, if Sunday night was not bad enough from a weather standpoint, what is?
That is my opinion.
Well said 5:32.
4:58 calling people crybabies doesn't make their opinions worthless? It's raining, it's late, people have gone home, little ones have gone to bed and the community was given full consideration when the fireworks were set off? At the very least get rid of that contractor.
I believe the budget for the fireworks this year was $15,000.
My vote is to keep Tanya Finn managing the fireworks. If this situation ever comes up again, she's a good person and I think she knows exactly how she'll handle it in the future. Unfortunate experience but nevertheless a lesson learned.
I agree, lesson learned. I'll contribute next year if they have a plan to address bad weather...not like Sunday.
We contribute to the firework fund every year. Luckily we DID happen to stay and did get to see them go off on Sunday evening. Do I think last years were better, yes. However that could have been because of all the smoke clouds around them this year and the rain, etc. I also don't feel they lasted as long as usual.
As far as the cost of fireworks. I know this # is wrong but say there are 750 houses in this community we would each only need to give $20 to raise the $15000 for the fund each year. However there are a GREAT many residents who do watch them every year and never give a dime, while others of us donate yearly and we are happy to get to enjoy them each year from our boats and our homes so we give more to ensure it continues.
I do think the contractor was in the wrong if they told Tonya that they wouldn't be good the next day. Shame on them. Perhaps we need to look into another organization in the future. I do think it seems as though there weren't as many fireworks this year as in previous, but it was still nice to be right there watching them!!
Perhaps in the future they could post on the cpoint board if they will or will not be shooting them off. The boards are there for resident notifications after all
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