Venture helps Elgin get more fireworks bang for its buck
By Linda McDaniel-Hale Point Taken June 29, 2012 1:00PM
Updated: August 2, 2012 6:19AM
With America’s birthday only three days away, do you have any plans to watch a fireworks display this year?
Unfortunately, the weather is in no way cooperating. Due to the extremely hot and hot conditions, municipalities all over the greater Chicago area are cancelling displays altogether or using fire hoses to wet down the areas where fireworks embers might fall.
Nonetheless, this will be the first time since 2009 that the city of Elgin will be a part of a fireworks display.
Firecrackers have been around since about 200 B.C. During the Han dynasty, “bursting bamboo” was set off for special occasions such as weddings, coronations and births. Did you know that fireworks were brought over to the New World in the 1600s? They were shot off to either impress or scare off Native American Indians. The very first Fourth of July celebration was held in 1777 with — you guessed it — a fireworks display in an effort to give its new citizens a sense of hope and patriotism.
The village of Sleepy Hollow’s Service Club puts on one of the best displays around. It only costs $5 per car to park and watch. If you want to make the drive to Arlington Park, their display is terrific but will cost you at least $10 a head to enter the park.
The last time the city of Elgin put on a fireworks display, in 2009 at the Sports Complex, it was a total bust, with Fox Valley citizens leaving in disgust. Now that the city has come up with $15,000, it is joining the villages of Hoffman Estates and Hanover Park, along with Hanover Township, with a venture that Elginites can enjoy.
With all the grumbling that has gone on the past several years about the lack of fireworks in Elgin, I certainly hope that people take the time to drive on over to the Sears Centre and enjoy the fun. Many local citizens have been missing this display.
Others think it is way too much money to be spending in such tight economic times.
Yet the joint fireworks venture seems to be a great compromise to provide the display without the exorbitant cost. If you cannot celebrate the Fourth of July without watching the fireworks, you can thank the Elgin City Council for giving it another try to bring the festivities back to Elgin.
With Elgin residents being divided over whether to have a fireworks display, for now $15,000 being shot into the air seems a small price to pay to bring back the celebration. Someone was using their head to join forces with other villages and a township to make it possible.
The memories you are left with are priceless.
Linda McDaniel-Hale is a Sleepy Hollow resident.
