LYNN — It’s getting down to crunch time for the planning of the city’s July 4 fireworks display, and for Ann Marie Leonard, that means there is a lot to coordinate.
However, by this time, she knows the drill. Leonard, who began working for the city in 1971, is retired. Ostensibly, that is. She still works at City Hall with the Department of Community Development, acts as the house manager for the concerts there, and, yes, still plans the annual fireworks display.
An awful lot goes into planning for the annual display, not the least of which is money. Planning and cost of the display is shared between Lynn and Swampscott, and the total bill comes to more than $30,000, Leonard said, with Lynn’s share being $22,000.
With almost three weeks left until July 3, the city is stepping up efforts to meet the cost. It has had two fundraisers at Rolly’s in Wyoma Square, and was scheduled to host a golf tournament Friday at Gannon.
Eastern Bank and Old Neighborhood Foods each contributed $2,500, she said.
“Somehow,” Leonard said, “we always make it.”
In an effort to reach the goal, the city is selling water bottles at $10 apiece at City Hall (Room 305) and they will also be available at Gannon as well, where they will be given as gifts.
The bulk of the cost, Leonard said, goes for police and fire details. The city works closely with both departments and Leonard is grateful that they, like her, know the drill.
“I have never run into any kind of a problem at all,” she said. “Everyone we work with has everything under control. For us, it comes down to raising the money. So far, we’ve been very lucky.”
This year, as always, Atlas of New Hampshire will set up the barge and run the actual show. Because the city shares the cost of the barge with the town of Marblehead, the rain date for the Lynn/Swampscott display is always July 5, as Marblehead’s goes off on the fourth.
There is one thing, however, neither Leonard nor the numerous public safety agencies can control, and that’s the weather. But if there’s rain, or too many clouds, the decision to postpone the display to another day is out of her hands.
“I don’t make that call,” she said. “I always leave that up to the fireworks company and Joe Zukas of the fire department.
“If they say we can’t shoot them off because it’s too cloudy, or windy, I say OK, and we push it to another date. Marblehead and Nahant have theirs of July 4, so we can’t do it then.”
Leonard began planning the fireworks display in 1987, during the administration of Mayor Albert V. DiVirgilio. That was when the display went off from the marina behind the old West Lynn Creamery (Garelick Farms).
“It wasn’t as expensive, and it worked out all right,” Leonard said. But when Patrick J. McManus took over as mayor in 1992, she said, there were a couple of years where the wind was blowing the wrong way, and debris blew back to where the people were watching.
“So,” she said, “he shut them down, closed off Lynn Shore Drive, and had them down the beach.”
Between fundraisers and mailings, Leonard is confident Lynn will reach its goal this year.
“You know,” she said, “if every household in Lynn just gave a dollar to this, we’d have the money every year.”