Groups to get more bang for their bucks

Elise Gee

COSTA MESA -- Youth and civic groups were given a

once-in-a-millennium opportunity Monday when the City Council decided to

allow the sale and use of fireworks during this year’s New Year’s Eve

celebration.

The decision grants dozens of groups, which raise money selling

fireworks during the Fourth of July, another opportunity to pad their

budgets. However, Councilman Joe Erickson, who cast the sole dissenting

vote, said he was concerned that police and fire personnel would be

overworked during the millennium celebration even without the extra

concern over fireworks.

Several members of booster and youth groups stayed until after

midnight to testify Monday about what the extra fund-raising opportunity

would do for their groups.

Costa Mesa High School parent Colene Atkins said the chance to run a

fireworks booth during New Year’s Eve would provide the marching band

with much-needed funds.

“They haven’t had new uniforms in 22 years,” Atkins said. “This could

give us our chance.”

Fourth of July fireworks sales have proved profitable to various

groups over the years. Linda Herzog, a parent supporter of the football

program at Costa Mesa High School, said the four days the booster group

sells fireworks in July raises more money for the team than any other

fund-raiser during the year.

Since beginning the fireworks fund-raiser six years ago, the Mesa

football boosters have gone from a $10,000 budget to an $80,000 budget,

Herzog said.

A state bill was signed last year that allows cities and counties to

approve the sale and use of fireworks during New Year’s Eve millennium

celebration. Of the four Orange County cities that allow fireworks during

the Fourth of July, only Stanton also plans to allow fireworks during the

millennium celebration.

In California, there are 98 other cities that will allow fireworks

during the start of the new millennium, said John Kelly, of American

Promotion Events, a fireworks vendor.

In Costa Mesa, groups that sold for American Promotion Events on the

Fourth of July made an average of $8,300 per stand, said Dennis Revell,

company spokesman.

Erickson said he supports fireworks and the fund-raising efforts of

youth and civic groups in the city. But he added that he gave great

credence to concerns raised by the city’s police and fire departments.

“Police and fire are going to be overworked that night,” Erickson

said. “There’s enough to worry about with not only drunk drivers but

people worried about Y2K. It’s typically one of the busiest nights of the

year and to throw the fireworks mess into this is beyond our capacity.”

The city’s fire marshal sent the council a memo asking them not to

allow the sales.

The sale of fireworks will be allowed from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Dec. 29

to Dec. 31. Fireworks use will be allowed from 4 p.m., Dec. 31 to 12:30

a.m. Jan. 1.