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Rotary Club marks 40 years of Fourth festivities http://www.svherald.com/articles/2007/07/04/news/doc468b41e88cd36069274817.txt

By Laura Ory
Herald/Review

Published on Wednesday, July 04, 2007

SIERRA VISTA — While thousands of people will be enjoying the Fourth of July events at Veterans’ Memorial Park, many will be working behind the scenes to make it happen.

“We have 102 members, and almost everyone is working tonight and tomorrow,” said Ernie Montagne, president of the Sierra Vista Rotary Club on Tuesday.

Putting on the event is a huge effort, from complying with state alcohol laws to painting lines on the field, and it requires the combined efforts of the Rotary Club, the San Pedro Kiwanis Club, the city and Fort Huachuca, Montagne said.

“Patriotism runs very high in Sierra Vista because so many military people live here. We feel that putting this on is a civic responsibility of our organization to promote patritism in the city. And we have a lot of fun doing it,”

KJ Wigton, a Rotary member, kept busy selling drinks and hot dogs for the talent show and street dance Tuesday. “It’s so neat to be able to give back to the community,” she said. “It’s giving versus just coming.” She has been volunteering for the event for the past five years.

“It’s a real community effort,” said Charlie LaClair, the Rotary Club’s president-elect. “We provide the manpower and organization and the sponsors provide the money for the county’s best fireworks show,”

And the fireworks are LaClair’s favorite part of the activities.

“They’re bigger and better than ever,” said Mike Strange, the event director for the Rotary Club’s 40th Fourth of July celebration.

About $25,000 from sponsors have contributed to what looks to be the largest fireworks show ever held in the county, said Pat Call, chief pyro-technician. When Call joined the Rotary club’s fireworks crew in the late 1980s as a loader, the show had a budget of about $8,000, he said.

More than 4,000 shells will be detonated during alternating aerial and ground shows, including 500 in the finale, at the Domingo Paiz/Stone Sports Complex.

“I prefer (being called) head pyromaniac, and there’s a little bit of truth to that,” he added.

Between 10,000 and 15,000 people are estimated to attend the day’s events, Strange said. “Sierra Vista is getting bigger, but it’s still friendly, it’s still a small town, and you can see people there that you hadn’t seen since last year,” said Rich Besselman, the master of ceremonies for the show since 1996.

Although many people watch the show from the parking lots and areas throughout the city, they will miss out on the ground displays that alternate between the aerial shows, the 36th Army Band and Besselman’s commentary at the sports complex, he said.

“In my mind it’s the best place to see the whole show,” Besselman said. “You’re close enough to see the fireworks come out of the tubes. It’s really kick-butt.”

The ground show has gotten a lot more high-tech this year, Call said. This year more sophisticated fireworks, including large fan basins, Roman candles and other fireworks should dazzle the crowds. “These are not your grandmother’s fireworks,” he added.

Although it’s more common for firework shows to be executed electronically, the crew lights most of the shells by hand with flares.

“It looks like chaos, noise, confusion and bright lights,” he said. “But it’s tightly choreographed and highly organized.”

It also allows the Rotary Club to afford more fireworks, including “discretionary shells,” to keep the pace and rhythm of the show going in case any fuses don’t light.

“We get more bang for our buck using the crew we have,” Besselman said. The trained crew is one of the largest in the Southwest, and many have volunteered for more than a decade, Call added.

The crew spent about three hours on Tuesday pre-fusing the show’s grand finale, which was choreographed by Bill Conroy.

Safety will be first priority throughout the show. He wants everyone to go home with “all 10 fingers and all 10 toes,” Call said.

Rain and high winds have also caused snags in the show, but the weather forecast seems clear this year, Besselman said.

More than 400 volunteers from the Rotary club, the city of Sierra Vista, Fort Huachuca and other groups were setting up tables and prepping for the fireworks show Tuesday and will be working at today’s events, including the clean-up of paper and shells after the show ends.

“We leave an amazing mess,” Call said.

Herald/Review reporter Laura Ory can be reached at 515-4683.

FOURTH OF JULY EVENTS

Sierra Vista

7:30 a.m.: Pets & People Parade judging of entries at Alphagraphics, 2309 E. Fry Blvd.

The following events are at Veterans’ Memorial Park.

8:45 a.m.: Pets & People awards

9 a.m.: Military displays, arts and crafts vendors, food vendors begin throughout the park

9:15 a.m.: Gospel choir

10:15 a.m.: Gymnastics and cheerleader exhibition

11:30 a.m.: Official Patriotic Ceremony with guest speakers and 50-Gun Salute

12:30 p.m.: Buena High School Band and Friends concert

12:30 p.m. — Chili Cook-Off and judging at Ramada No. 1

3 p.m.: Ron Hinkle, jazz banjoist

3:30 p.m.: Alma Dolores International Dance Center performing international dances

4 p.m.: The Barefoot Wahines + One; Pacific Island dances

4:30 p.m.: Dance Fusion Studio performing jazz, hip hop and patriotic tap dances

5 p.m.: KRYSIS — Sierra Vista’s “Klassic True Rock Band”

7 p.m.: Beau Renfro and The Allstar Country Music Band

8:30 p.m.: Fireworks display, can be seen from half mile away

9:15 p.m.: Beau Renfro and The Allstar Country Music Band

The following events will take place at Domingo Paiz/Stone Sports Complex at the east end of Tacoma Street

6 p.m.: Army Dixie Band

7 p.m.: 36th Army Band

8:15 p.m.: “1812 Overture” by the 36th Army Band

8:30 p.m.: Fireworks display

9:15 p.m.: KRYSIS

Bisbee

Vendors, music and events will take place all day today at Vista and Goar parks. At 8:30 a.m. there will be a coaster race (Old Bisbee). Other events: Iron Man run (Tombstone Canyon, 9:15 a.m.); parade (Warren, 11 a.m.) and hard rock drilling and mucking contests (Brewery Gulch, starting at 2 p.m.); 8 p.m. fireworks at Vista Park.

Huachuca City

The town will host a “Picnic in the Park” today. Music and children’s events are planned, starting at 3:30 p.m. Fireworks at 8:30 p.m.

Tombstone

Come to the “Family Style Fourth of July” at Medigovich Field today. City fireworks display will be at dusk.

Palominas

Unorganized parade: 8 to 8:30 a.m. — Lineup at Palominas Fire Station on Palominas Road

9 a.m. — Parade begins, ends at Palominas Trading Post.