City seeks donations for fireworks

While the city of Mason has up to $365,000 to spend on its Fourth of July festival, the city of Hamilton is scrambling to scrape up $25,000 for its fireworks show.

The city’s Fourth of July committee is asking for donations to keep the fireworks booming for the 47th annual celebration.

“If we can raise more than that, we can have a bigger and better display,” Bob Harris, parks and recreation director, said. “With these economic times, I think people would like to celebrate and have a good day to forget about their woes and troubles for a while.”

The volunteer committee says it already has enough money for a planned parade and patriotic ceremony to honor veterans -- provided by the Hamilton Community Foundation’s Michael J. Colligan fund. However, the fiscally strapped city lacks the money for a fireworks display and other post-parade activities, Harris said.

Thousands of visitors line the shores of the Great Miami River for the annual show, Harris said. Many of those visitors likely won’t show up to buy local goods and services if there are no fireworks to see.

“If we don’t have fireworks, we’ll have people from our community attend events from other communities that do [have fireworks],” he said. “We want the businesses to afford to stay [in Hamilton]. We don’t want them to leave.”

All donations will go to the event committee, not the city, Harris said. Anyone interested in donating can contact the Hamilton Community Fund at 513-863-1717.