On May 5, the Pagosa Springs Town Council discussed the possibility of having a fireworks show for this year’s Fourth of July celebration, deciding to move forward with plans for fireworks unless fire danger prompts a cancellation of the show.
Tourism Director Jennifer Green was on hand to explain that the fireworks vendor would like a decision by May 16 on if the town wanted to move forward with the fireworks show.
Green explained that the high possibility of fire risk this summer is why the council needed to discuss the issue in May, so that the vendor can have “time to plan for the show” for July 4.
Should the town decide to postpone the fireworks show to a later date in order to avoid the summer fire risk, the vendor would charge a 15 percent fee, Green explained, amounting to about $4,800.
The fee would cover the cost of the vendor moving the fireworks back out of the town and bringing them back at another date, she explained.
“If we choose not to have a show on the Fourth, then we will need to have another show this year, or we basically lose 30 percent of the budget, which is a total of $32,000,” she explained.
The cost would be about $9,600 (30 percent of $32,000) should the council decide not to have any shows in 2026 after indicating to the vendor to move forward with planning a show, she explained.
Something similar happened “about five years ago,” she said, when the town “preemptively canceled the show on the Fourth,” moving it to the Halloween Hootenanny celebration in October.
Mayor Shari Pierce indicated that she thought it was too early to cancel the show and wanted “to keep it as a go, for now.”
Council member Brooks Lindner expressed agreement, saying, “I’d be in favor of not canceling and keeping the option to have the show at some other time in the year if we end up having to cancel Fourth of July.”
He added, “I feel like it’s really early to cancel. I know we’re all expecting drought at this point, but I feel like we were in this same boat last year and we were talking about canceling and then we got tons of rain and had Fourth of July and it was great.”
Council member Mat deGraaf said that “the optics of this can be tricky,” with “our local water providers already in drought restrictions,” but agreed that it was too early to think about canceling.
Pierce added that since the town uses a vendor, “we can do a show way safer” than other places “that try to put on their own shows.”
Council member Leonard Martinez suggested that the town should look at continuing “mitigating the risks given the conditions.”
The council would need to decide by “about a month out” if it wants to postpone the fireworks display, Green explained, adding that she would reach out to the vendor to get an exact date on the deadline to postpone.
The town’s fireworks show vendor comes from Idaho, she explained, adding that “one year we canceled and they were not able to get reimbursed on the lodging they had booked.”
She added that “we just want to make sure” that the town has plenty of time “to give notification” of a postponement, “accordingly,” to the vendor.
Council member Gary Williams noted that he thought “the vendor has been very good in the past and puts on a good show every time.”
derek@pagosasun.com
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