City guarantees 2003 fireworks show

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- Things are looking up for next year’s Fourth of July

celebration, if only because city officials are so solidly determined to

put on a fireworks show.

Just a week after an Independence Day celebration that was

uncharacteristically lacking in oohs and aahs, city officials have vowed

to find a way to put on a fireworks show next year.

“We’re going to have fireworks one way or another,” City Councilman

Steve Bromberg said.

Residents and officials were more than a little disappointed when the

Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort announced in May that it would not put on

its annual pyrotechnics display. The legal liability had gotten way too

costly, Dunes operators said.

Last year, Dunes operators received about 80 claims from boat owners

who claimed their boat covers were damaged by the hot embers that fall

from the sky during the fireworks shows, according to city documents. The

canvas boat covers cost several hundred dollars or more each.

“Once you put all that stuff into the air and it blows up, the

particles come back down,” Newport Beach Fire Chief Tim Riley said,

adding that this poses a fire hazard, as well as a legal liability.

City officials scrambled to find a way to put on their own show to

replace the Dunes’ display. Even offering to assume the liability and the

cost of the fireworks show didn’t fill the void -- neither Dunes

operators nor the pyrotechnics company would change their minds about

putting on the Dunes show. Officials also considered shooting the

fireworks off the pier or a barge off shore, but either way this would

mean adding to the already overwhelming problems with crowds and crime on

the peninsula.

But at a meeting Tuesday to discuss rules for issuing private permits,

discussion quickly gravitated toward the Dunes show and ways to replace

it. Come what may, some say, next year the skies over Newport Beach will

alight.

“The Dunes is in my district, and I can guarantee I’m going to pursue

it,” Bromberg said.

* June Casagrande covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport. She may

be reached at (949) 574-4232 or by e-mail at o7

june.casagrande@latimes.comf7 .