After the city decided to go dark this year for Fourth of July fireworks at the Naples Pier, Collier County officials stepped in to light up the Fourth with a pyrotechnics show planned at Paradise Coast Sports Complex.
“I’m proud that the county pivoted quickly and stepped forward after the city’s decision. The county is working very hard to still celebrate Independence Day,” said Commission Chair Rick LoCastro. County staff worked on the logistics this past week to present the holiday show for the first time at the new sports complex, 3940 City Gate Blvd. N., LoCastro said.
County Commissioner Bill McDaniel said the parks and recreation departments from both the county and the city initially had worked it out for joint holiday fireworks displays with the city hosting the Fourth of July show and the county handling the New Year’s Eve display, but the city surprised the county June 7 when it decided to cancel fireworks on the Fourth. “The city took a right turn,” McDaniel said.
Naples City Council decided to postpone the city’s traditional Fourth of July fireworks display off the beach near the Naples Pier next month because of safety concerns. The annual parade will go on as planned on Independence Day, but instead of fireworks that night, council decided to sponsor a fireworks show in early December, most likely Dec. 2 to end the city’s three-day centennial celebration festival planned for Nov. 30 through Dec. 2.
“There is a consensus — or there’s a majority, I should say — in postponing it this year due to safety concerns,” Mayor Teresa Heitmann said at the June 7 council meeting.
Not only are many public access points to the beach and the pier still closed after being damaged last fall by Hurricane Ian, but city officials also worry about the security of vacant homes and buildings with the addition of crowds downtown after dark.
Most years, the county also sponsors a July Fourth fireworks show at Sugden Regional Park at the same time that the city has its show at the pier. But with the city show being canceled, the county wouldn’t have been able to handle the extra influx at Sugden, LoCastro said. So, the county found a better alternative at the sports park, but the venue had to be approved by the parks staff and fire marshal. That happened today.
The free Independence Day celebration will be held rain or shine Tuesday, July 4, at the Paradise Coast Sports Complex, which is east of Collier Boulevard and north of Interstate 75’s Alligator Alley. Gates open at 6 p.m., the band starts playing at 7 p.m. and the fireworks will start at 9 p.m. The venue’s stadium has 1,300 parking spots, 5,000 seats and grass fields for guests to position their own lawn chairs or blankets. Food and beverages will be sold.
A July Fourth fireworks show also is planned at the private Residents’ Beach at 130 S. Collier Blvd. on Marco Island but the “bombs bursting in air” will be visible from public spots elsewhere on the Gulf beach and island. Although it normally closes at dusk, the county’s Tigertail Beach Park, 480 Hernando Drive, Marco Island, will be open for free parking after 6 p.m. for the 9 p.m. show on Marco, LoCastro said.
“People can park there and walk south down the beach to get closer to the fireworks show,” he said. “Fireworks on Marco also are very visible from Tigertail.”
City safety concerns
City officials in Naples didn’t take a formal vote on the holiday issue, but decided after public discussion to forgo celebrating America’s independence at the pier and beach area that were badly damaged by Hurricane Ian last September.
“In addition to the fact that we will have less parking, because we have beachheads that are closed. We will have more limited access to the beach because, you know, we have some areas that are closed,” said City Manager Jay Boodheshwar. “We have a lot of vacant properties. We have vacant properties up and along the beach. You all have seen the emails about trespassing and things that happen just on a day-to-day basis, so just imagine after dark tens of thousands of people. We are going to have issues. And we’re prepared to deal with those issues, but I just want to make sure our eyes are wide open, that the potential of having more issues is greater this year than the traditional issues we have every year with parking and traffic and trespassing and things like that. That’s a real issue. So, I just want to make sure that all of that is considered.”
Vice Mayor Mike McCabe is concerned that many of the western ends of avenues have not reopened yet for public parking or beach access.
“It does open a liability issue for the city,” McCabe said. “Because when you say that those beach avenue ends are closed doesn’t mean people aren’t going to walk, or even try to park because I’ve actually seen people as I’m riding by, get out, move the barricades, pull the cars in, move the barricades back and people trying to walk to the beach through the areas that are dangerous. I don’t think that’s a good idea right now.”
Because Collier County government officials were planning to partner with the city for the Fourth fireworks, that means the county wasn’t planning to have fireworks at Sugden Regional Park if the city was having them at the pier, McCabe said, “which means that the crowds that we would have on Fourth of July would be even greater than they are in a normal year, in a time when we really can’t even handle what a normal year is.”
So, McCabe sees the benefit of rescheduling the city’s fireworks display for five months.
“At this point for this year, I think that moving it to another date that has an ancillary benefit for the city to help celebrate a very important milestone for us, I believe that will be a very good solution for this year,” he said.
Although having mixed feelings about the matter, Councilmember Paul Perry also is inclined to postpone the fireworks to December. “If we have the normal crowd that we have on most fireworks nights, they may not even see where they are walking, and it could cause real problems,” Perry said. “I know at my beach end on 18th it’s dangerous to walk through there, and particularly in the dark and after people have been celebrating. So, that’s my main concern.”
Councilmembers Ted Blankenship and Terry Hutchinson appeared to be the most in favor of the city sponsoring a traditional holiday celebration on the Fourth. Hutchison said that Independence Day celebrations are a symbol of patriotism that remain an important aspect of the national holiday. Blankenship stressed that the value is worth it, especially to bring people downtown to support local businesses during the slow summer.
“I’d really like to see us still have the fireworks,” he said. “I just think there are multiple reasons that the tradition, the love for the fireworks and the parade by the residents and that it really helps our small businesses.”
The fact that city staff and first responders such as police and fire personnel have to work an entire day with overtime on the holiday is one of the reasons Mayor Heitmann wanted to postpone the fireworks.
“I really believe that we also need to be considerate of that and our resources for them and being respectful that it does take a burden,” she said.
Chad Merritt, director of the city’s Parks, Recreation and Facilities Department, presented a brief cost rundown of a fireworks show in Naples. “A barge typically costs us between about $30,000 and $50,000, depending on where the barge location is. The fireworks run us about $25,000 to $30,000,” he said.
