THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 6, 1995 TAG: 9507060357
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
Mother Nature again threw cold water on the city's fireworks show, hurrying up a scheduled July 4th show at Mount Trashmore Park Tuesday night.
An approaching thunderstorm forced the city's Parks and Recreation Department to move up a planned 9:30 p.m. show to shortly before 9 p.m. as heavy auto and foot traffic was converging on the park from all directions.
Show organizers decided to torch the fuses before the downpour began, said Peter J. ``Pete'' Hangen, marketing supervisor for the city's Parks and Recreation Department.
The 18-minute show, put on by Pyrotecnico of New Castle, Pa., was cut even shorter when some of its shells - apparently affected by a light rain - failed to detonate, Hangen said.
Those who arrived a few minutes late were greeted by throngs leaving the park, creating traffic snarls as they mixed with those just arriving for the show.
Hangen said the city was forced into a ``no-win situation'' as organizers monitored storm clouds that had been gathering since late afternoon. Light rain began falling shortly after 8 p.m. Once city officials determined that the rain would only worsen closer to the 9:30 p.m. display, they made the decision to go on with the show ahead of schedule.
Thousands of people were already at the park, where city-sponsored activities had been going since 3 p.m. The fireworks show was to be the grand finale.
Although organizers had scheduled and publicized a rain date of Wednesday, Hangen explained that it applied only if the entire day had been a washout. The rest of the activities, including live stage shows, went off without a hitch.
Tuesday's situation marked the second time in four weeks that stormy weather washed out a major fireworks event in Virginia Beach. Part of the North American Fireworks Competition held June 7 to 9 at the Oceanfront was canceled due to high winds and rain.
At the Oceanfront Tuesday night, a few visitors were disappointed that the Independence Day fireworks on the beach were eliminated this year so as not to overlap with the Mount Trashmore show.
One of them was John Peckally of Elmira, N.Y. Peckally said he visits the Beach on the Fourth of July every year with his family and especially had enjoyed watching the fireworks from his hotel balcony in years past.
The Mount Trashmore site was inconvenient for out-of-town visitors like himself, he said.
The site change was prompted this year by resort merchants who asked the city to discontinue its fireworks shows at the Oceanfront to cut down on crowds and traffic snarls.
``There were some folks who did say something about it. . . but they seemed to understand that it (the fireworks show) created a bigger traffic snafu than we normally have down here on holiday weekends,'' said hotelier Rick Anoia, president of the Resort Leadership Council.
Even without the fireworks, Oceanfront streets were packed with pedestrian and auto traffic from Saturday through Tuesday nights, he said.
Meanwhile, Beach police spent several hours sorting out clogged thoroughfares around Mount Trashmore Tuesday night. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
L. TODD SPENCER
Impersonating Uncle Sam, Greg Hardison turns heads and draws
attention from a throng of visitors during Fourth of July activities
at Mount Trashmore in Virginia Beach.
by CNB