Fireworks

Susan Wise Huntington Beach, host to the largest Fourth of July parade on the west coast, should be having an all-day centennial event this year ending with a spectacular fireworks show at the beach. Instead of worrying about what could happen (riots and vandalism), they should be thinking about what would happen: thousands of hotel rooms filled to capacity; local merchants and restaurants booming with business; and all that tax money going straight into city coffers.

Jenny Marder A group of residents refuse to take no for an answer when it comes to Independence Day fireworks on the beach. Though a proposal to hold a fireworks display at the city beach has already been denied by the City Council twice, Councilwoman Pam Julien Houchen will bring the measure back at the Feb. 17 meeting -- this time armed with a more convincing argument and stronger support. The four council members who voted against the proposal on Jan. 19 said that they feared a repeat of the riots that swept through Surf City in the 1990s.

Jenny Marder Sparks of hope flew through the council chambers but were swiftly snuffed out Tuesday night when a plan to hold an extravagant fireworks show at the beach was denied for the second year in a row. It would have been the largest Fourth of July display on the West Coast and the second largest in the nation, second only to Manhattan, said Margie Bunten, chair of the Fourth of July Parade Committee. "We've outgrown the high school and we need to move on to bigger community events," said Ron McLin, president of the Huntington Beach Restaurant Assn.

Jenny Marder One of Surf City's most explosive debates -- fireworks at the beach -- will be reignited Tuesday at the City Council meeting. The Huntington Beach Fourth of July executive board is hoping that the council has changed its mind since last year and will approve fireworks at the beach for the city's centennial Independence Day celebration. Last year, the council narrowly denied the event for 2003 due to safety concerns. The fireworks display would have been the largest Fourth of July extravaganza on the West Coast and second only to Manhattan in the nation.

Jenny Marder Illegal fireworks illuminated the sky over Downtown Huntington Beach this year, the first Fourth of July in decades that the city did not put on a public fireworks display. The Fire Department confiscated roughly 45,000 firecrackers, about seven times as much as the 6,500 rounded up in 2002, Fire Chief Duane Olson said. These are only the ones that were discovered and not set off. "It was a concerted effort, really a team effort on the part of police and fire departments to try and manage illegal fireworks," Olson said.

Scott Jaeggi Thanks for all of Danette Goulet's Editor's Notebook columns in the Independent. I find myself in agreement with most, if not all of her writings. This week's column (July 3, 2003) sparked my fire and caused me to write. We also left Huntington Beach for another destination (Lake Havasu, Ariz.) to celebrate the Fourth of July. We saw a great fireworks show that lasted about 20 minutes and it was free to anyone who was fortunate enough to have vision.

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK I was in Las Vegas on the Fourth of July last year. My friends and I bought tall frozen drinks and plopped down on a strip of grass with dozens of others, anxiously awaiting the fireworks display. The next day, we were headed out to Lake Mead to spend four days on a house boat, but we stopped off in Vegas to catch a fireworks show and a little Independence Day spirit. Everyone was chatting happily and looking eagerly toward the sky. Nothing.

Fireworks should not be canceled Please add me to the large list of citizens that want to see fireworks in Huntington Beach this Fourth of July. It is very hard to understand the reasoning given about not having fireworks when other cities do it from barges in the ocean. Is there any way we can change this bad decision? It is not right to ban safe and sane fireworks and then not provide any firework show. This is a loss for the city. MARK COHEN Huntington Beach Isn't it sad that we are one of the few, if not only, beach cities not to have Fourth of July fireworks on the beach.

Elaine Turnbull I can't believe the public is so incensed about not having fireworks in Huntington Beach. We have many more important issues facing us than that. Also, I'm sure we can find better ways than shooting off firecrackers to show our patriotic support for "our sons and daughters serving in harms way in the Middle East" as Barry L. Williams put it (Sounding Off, March 6.) My husband and I remember when we had fireworks shot off the end of the pier in the past.

Barry L Williams Sounds to me like the police are intimidated by the activity. Don't we keep a police force to protect us; not regulate a free society? The council majority seemed to sympathize with the management of the Hyatt rather than sympathize with the patriotic support we owe our sons and daughters serving in harms way in the Middle East. The Hyatt has an application; presumably approved; to hold a fireworks show in March on the same beach according to unconfirmed sources.