Jim Martel

To the editor,

It was nice to see the reply in the Sun from Chet Cilley and Charlie St. Clair about their decisions on the July 4 and Motorcycle Week fireworks. But it still does not answer my question on how to give John Q. Citizen a guide to know when a fireworks display is likely to "go off" as scheduled.

Usually, if it is raining, fireworks shows are cancelled. But Mr Cilley said "all we had was drizzle" on July 4 and despite smaller crowds they set off the fireworks as planned. Was the "drizzle" the cause of the smaller crowds, do you think? I was at Opechee at 5:30 p.m. watching the talent competition when the wind was creating dust storms. Then the drizzle moved in about 6 p.m . Around 7:30 with wind and "drizzle" defeating the umbrella and making things uncomfortable we went home and believed the fireworks show would be rescheduled. Wrong! So J.Q. Citizen cannot use the "it's raining" guide.

Mr. St Clair said the weather for the fireworks was "Iffy" on Wednesday of Cycle Week as it had "rained off and on all Wednesday morning and was still raining south of Laconia later on". Evidently they decided to cancel the fireworks sometime before 3 p.m. to cancel the delivery of the fireworks and use the "rain date". Unfortunately it did not rain during the late afternoon or evening so why would anyone think the fireworks had been cancelled. So this does not help J.Q. Citizen either.

I guess the Police and Fire Depts. will just have to be prepared to handle several hundred calls in the evening hours prior to a scheduled fireworks display asking if they had been cancelled, even if there is not a cloud in the sky!

One person told me they turned on a local radio station to hear if the July 4 Fireworks would go on or be cancelled due to the "little drizzle" but heard nothing and stayed home and missed the "great" fireworks display that the City of Laconia always puts on. Too bad so many of us missed the show because of a "little drizzle"!

Perhaps the sponsors in the future could set up a "Hot Line" for status reports as to whether or not a certain fireworks show will go off when the weather is "iffy".

Or notify the local radio stations to broadcast it if it was decided to cancel some seven hours prior to the scheduled time. (The fireworks at the Weirs on Thursday were very nice, as usual.)

So, Good Luck fellow John Q. Citizens in trying to figure out if you should head out to see a Fireworks display as there appears to no standard set of guidelines to help us figure it out.

Jim Martel

Gilford