To keep July 4th fireworks alive, North Jersey towns turn to donors
Last updated: Tuesday July 3, 2012, 7:33 AM
BY KATHERIN DRIESSEN AND JAKE HYMAN
STAFF WRITERS
The Record
Fourth of July fireworks and events across North Jersey
North Jersey towns that struggle to pay for costly but cherished Fourth of July fireworks displays are increasingly relying on hefty and sometimes unpredictable commercial donations to help light up the skies.
Using everything from red-white-and-blue-themed donation websites to direct mailings sent out as early as September, towns are desperately appealing to businesses' sense of patriotism in the hopes they will open up their pocketbooks.
The approach is different in each municipality — some, like Paramus, now rely solely on commercial and resident donors while others, like Ridgewood and Clifton, offset costs by also charging admission to the show. But across the board, more towns are offering less financial support for the festivities.
"The well is dried up," said Bergen County Freeholder David L. Ganz, who is also the former head of the county's Budget and Finance Committee. "Even with something like the Fourth of July fireworks, a real national tradition, taxpayers don't want to fund it. Municipalities are going to have to get creative."
Commercially funded fireworks shows play just a small role in a larger and increasingly familiar narrative unfolding in North Jersey as municipalities confront bleak budgets and consider contracting out services previously provided in-house. It's a story playing out at the county level, too, where debate about privatization has centered on issues of quality and liability for services such as garbage collection and tree trimming.
While the towns that have contracted out for fireworks displays have had no complaints about the quality, some have struggled to raise the necessary donations. Some, like Hawthorne and Haledon, gave up their fireworks shows altogether because of flagging interest among would-be corporate donors.
"Originally, we were getting some interest from local businesses, but that dwindled at the same time of the budget cuts," said Haledon Mayor Domenick Stampone.
Other Passaic County towns — including Wayne and West Milford — have turned their shows over to local Police Athletic Leagues, non-profit organizations that attempt to use the fireworks display as a fundraising tool.
Show canceled
In Paramus, where the Fourth of July committee has been asking residents and businesses to help foot the cost of its annual celebration for nearly 10 years, the committee was forced to cancel its fireworks display and block party in 2010.
Until that summer, the borough routinely had picked up the tab for costs that donations didn't cover, said committee Chairman Ace Antonio. That usually meant paying overtime for police and fire officers.
But with the town working to close a $3.7 million deficit in 2010, the borough cut all funding for the Fourth of July events and began relying more heavily on business donations. Those proved to be in short supply, even in a town that boasts at least six prominent shopping malls.
"When people's jobs are on the line and the cuts are being made everywhere, you couldn't justify something like fireworks," Antonio said. "So we had to ask [businesses] for more."
The town relied on donations from the "big three" — Paramus Park, IKEA and the Westfield Garden State Plaza — to cover the costs of the fireworks display, Antonio said. But about five years ago, IKEA stopped giving as much and in 2010 the store dropped off the donor list altogether. Paramus Park also gave less that year than ever before.
Even though the town had raised roughly $80,000 in donations, the extra $50,000 estimated for overtime and sanitation costs was too much for the borough to pay or for the committee to raise in donations, then-committee Chairman Rich Siniscalchi said. The committee made a last-ditch effort to reach out to other area towns that were also struggling to pay for fireworks shows that year, but there was no interest.
"It wasn't easy to call it off because of course it's an important tradition," Siniscalchi said. "We just didn't see we had any other option."
The borough revived the display in 2011 when Westfield Garden State Plaza pitched in $35,000, its largest-ever donation to the fireworks fund. The Plaza offered roughly the same amount this year to make sure the fireworks' cancellation in 2010 was not repeated, according to a spokeswoman for the mall.
Event as fundraiser
In some Passaic County towns, local Police Athletic Leagues have taken over running the events. Wayne Mayor Christopher Vergano said the township's fireworks display — which went on last night at Wayne Hills High School — is a huge summer event attended by thousands of people and the Wayne PAL's biggest annual fundraiser. The organization charges $10 a head, proceeds of which pay for the event itself and help fund PAL programs throughout the year, Vergano said.
Steve Schiffman, director of operations for the Wayne PAL, said the fireworks show wouldn't happen if not for corporate sponsors and donations. "We survive on corporate and individual donations," he said.
About 5,000 people on Friday night attended West Milford's festival, called the Thunder in the Highlands, said Bill Hemstead, president of the West Milford PAL. The PAL seeks corporate donors but also charges $15 per car for admission to the event. The organization took over in 2010 after the township cut budget funding for fireworks. The show costs between $15,000 and $18,000 to put on.
One of its major sponsors is Lakeland Bank, which in return gets its name emblazoned on advertising banners. Hemstead said the corporate donation helps keep the fireworks afloat and that he expects the event to break even this year.
In Hackensack, where the fireworks display is funded in large part by four businesses — Sanzari Enterprises, Hackensack University Medical Center, ShopRite and Mariners Bank — the town still picks up extra costs.
City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono declined to say exactly how much money the four main sponsors contributed, but he said donations total about $40,000. Lo Iacono expects overtime pay for police and fire officers will exceed that amount this year.
Finding sponsors
Hackensack, like Paramus, has had more difficulty soliciting donations from businesses over the past couple of years. Lo Iacono said he sent out letters early and played up the roughly 14,000-person crowd when marketing the celebration.
"We offer exposure," Lo Iacono said. "I can go to [businesses] and tell them roughly how many people are going to attend. It's certainly an advantage we have here."
Clifton charges $3 a head to watch the fireworks display and taps donations from a variety of local businesses as well as fees from vendors, said Mayor James Anzaldi.
"People just love it," Anzaldi said.
Sponsors give $100 or more and banks and restaurants are typically the big donors, he said.
Covering the costs of fireworks is easier in towns like Ridgewood and Clifton, where the slight decline in business donations is offset by charging for admission to Fourth of July events. Ridgewood's 112-year-old celebration is covered almost equally by ticket sales and private donations, former committee Chairwoman Margie Downs said.
But not every town that relies on donations has found a model that works. In Ridgefield Park, home to New Jersey's oldest Independence Day celebration, the skies will remain dark for the fourth consecutive year, though the daytime festivities will continue as planned.
"It's not cheap to do some of these things and the cuts are hard to make," said Ganz, the Bergen County freeholder. "But it would be a shame to lose fireworks permanently."
Email: hymanj@northjersey.com