Fireworks displays this weekend in Groton, Tburg

Independence Day is nearing, and while some towns have a fireworks show to look forward to, most will be going without for the third year in a row due in large part to the pandemic.

Like last year (see tinyurl.com/2m44bs4l), the pandemic has canceled both the Ithaca Rotary and Lansing Community Council’s 2022 fireworks shows, two of the largest in the county in pre-pandemic years.

Two communities will be hosting a fireworks show for the second year in a row since the pandemic hit — Trumansburg and Groton.

Last year, the Groton Fire Department coordinated a show for locals, which will continue this year on July 1 at 9:30 p.m. at Groton Elementary School. In 2021, Inn at Taughannock Falls also coordinated a show, though it wasn’t open to on-site attendance. This year, however, the inn is back to hosting a full, public show at Taughannock Falls State Park on July 3. Inn staff note that on-site parking is being handled by the state park and is limited to what space the park can provide.

As sources explained to Tompkins Weekly, though much of the county is enjoying a significant loosening of pandemic restrictions in recent months, there were still too many hurdles this year to make some of the biggest shows happen.

Ed LaVigne, town supervisor for Lansing and president of the Lansing Community Council, said that the pandemic has canceled Lansing fireworks since 2020 because “it’s problematic to have mass gatherings [at Myers Park] when you still have a contagious plague around.”

This year, as LaVigne explained, a culmination of lingering concerns about the pandemic and logistical challenges ultimately canceled the show once again. On the logistics front, the Route 34B bridge is still under construction, which blocks a major bus route that residents would usually take to Myers Park, where the fireworks are typically released.

“The busing was problematic because we had a hard time coordinating between volunteers and costs had increased, amongst other things,” he said. “And so, the busing in my opinion wasn’t feasible at the time. The other part was the deputies because the Sheriff’s Department was under so much stress, I don’t even think we could have even gotten volunteers or actually paid them — which we do, just like we pay the school for the busing — for the police officers to come because they’re understaffed.”

On top of that, LaVigne explained that there are around 10 members on the Lansing Community Council, and there weren’t enough volunteers to be able to make the show happen.

“Anyone can volunteer, but it appears as though volunteering for things really has gone to the wayside,” he said. “A lot of these organizations, you’ll see it a lot of them are getting older, that the age group is getting older. But volunteering for community service, in many cases, seems to be on the way out, which is sad.”

It’s a similar story at the Ithaca Rotary, as Rotarian Frank Towner explained. The Rotary has been coordinating the Ithaca community fireworks since roughly 2018, Towner said, so it only had a couple of shows under its belt when the pandemic hit and shut everything down. This year, the pandemic continued to affect the show’s planning process.

“We start planning so far in advance, because it really takes a lot of time to pull the fireworks off, … but in December of ’21 and in January ’22, when we were making decisions, things were still unsure about group gatherings,” he said. “So, we thought rather than to risk it and plan and put everything together, better to wait another year and see where we go from there.”

Like Lansing, Ithaca Rotary also faced financial and volunteer-related challenges with this year’s show.

“One of the reasons that Rotary Club took it over is because of our size of our club, we felt that we had enough volunteers,” Towner said. “Our club, like many clubs, are losing members because it’s not the same. We’re not meeting in person right now. You’ve got older folks that are immune deficient. … And as we’re trying to bring in new people, we’re losing some people, so our volunteer base is not as high as we would’ve liked it.”

Even though Ithaca and Lansing won’t be hosting fireworks this year, residents around the county may still be able to watch the fireworks go off in Trumansburg and Groton depending on location. Inn of Taughannock Director of Sales Stephanie Monroe explained that she and others at the inn are hoping that their fireworks will be enjoyed by plenty of residents, including those outside of Trumansburg.

After having a much smaller show last year, Inn at Taughannock is excited to have a more formalized, public show this year.

“We haven’t done a really large open-to-the-public event during the July 4 fireworks on our estate yet,” she said. “We’re hoping to do that in future, but even the park has been slow to recover from COVID. And some of their rules have impacted the show a little bit as well — in a good way, in a safe way. So, we’re looking forward to this year now that the majority of the pandemic-era guidelines are behind us that we can have the show again in a truly public way and invite people in to watch it.”

Monroe said that residents have been eager to see the fireworks return as well.

“Everybody wants them,” she said. “They keep emailing us and sending us Facebook messages, calling us. I think Trumansburg really did get used to the show. And I’m excited that we’re going to be able to give them back to the them this year.”

Looking ahead, it’s still unclear what the fireworks situation will look like in the county past Independence Day. In Lansing, LaVigne said that some residents and Community Council members brought up the idea of setting off fireworks at some kind of celebratory event once the Route 34B bridge reopens, which he’s very much in favor of. But Fourth of July fireworks are very uncertain, he said.

“I don’t know if it’ll ever happen again,” he said. “We have to start to fundraising probably in March or February, and we haven’t done that again this year. So, I don’t know if we’ll have fireworks again. If another nonprofit group wants to go and do it, I think that would be fine. [We’ll] see where it goes.”

Towner, on the other hand, is fairly confident the fireworks can return to Stewart Park in 2023. He invites community members to help make it happen in 2023.

“The quick answer is yes, put with the caveat, we need to make sure that we’ve got the proper committee together and the support, again, from the city and the support from our club and other Rotary clubs and any other volunteers,” he said. “We are starting to return in person meetings at [the] St. Catherine’s church meeting area and invite all members back and welcome all newcomers.”

For more information about the Groton fireworks show, call the Groton Fire Station at (607) 898-3135. To learn more about Inn at Taughannock’s show, call (607) 387-7711.

Jessica Wickham is the managing editor of Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to them at editorial@VizellaMedia.com.