{"id":24422,"date":"2019-05-28T18:08:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T00:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/dillons-4th-of-july-fireworks-show-shot-down-by-dillon-reservoir-recreation-committee\/"},"modified":"2019-05-28T18:08:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-29T00:08:00","slug":"dillons-fourth-of-july-fireworks-show-shot-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/local-news\/dillons-fourth-of-july-fireworks-show-shot-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Dillon\u2019s Fourth of July fireworks show shot down"},"content":{"rendered":"
Fireworks over the Dillon Reservoir on July 4, 2017.<\/strong>
Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The county will be a little quieter this Fourth of July with no fireworks over Lake Dillon as community officials continue to consider the impacts of large crowds in the area.<\/p>\n

The town of Dillon officially pulled the plug on their planned fireworks show over the reservoir this Independence Day, or rather the plug was pulled for them at the monthly Dillon Reservoir Recreation Committee (DRReC) meeting last week.<\/p>\n

Dillon\u2019s marketing and communications director Kerstin Anderson said the town had every intention of moving forward with a fireworks display going into the DRReC meeting last Tuesday \u2014 a committee made up of representatives from Dillon, Frisco, Summit County, the U.S. Forest Service and Denver Water. But after questions arose about public safety and the community\u2019s desire to collaborate on big projects of this nature, the town\u2019s permit was denied.<\/p>\n

Denver Water, which operates the reservoir, is a required \u2018yes\u2019 for any events to take place on the reservoir. Denver Water\u2019s manager of recreation Brandon Ransom, who serves on the committee, was among those who opposed the show.<\/p>\n

According to Todd Hartman, a spokesman for Denver Water, the decision was largely influenced by health and safety concerns of the community, citing input from law enforcement and emergency services worried about their ability to navigate potentially extreme congestion around the reservoir, including on U.S. Highway 6 and CO Highway 9.<\/p>\n

\u201cDenver Water is proud to support many recreational activities and events around Dillon Reservoir through the DRReC partnership, which allows all stakeholders an opportunity to weigh in so we can carefully evaluate the activity with regard to public safety and resource requirements,\u201d said Ransom in a statement provided to the Summit Daily.<\/p>\n

The county\u2019s fireworks shows began making news in January after Breckenridge decided to cancel their show<\/a>, citing concerns regarding wildfire safety after back-to-back seasons with major fires: the Peak 2 Fire and the Buffalo Mountain Fire.<\/p>\n

In response to Breckenridge\u2019s cancellation, Frisco decided to cancel their annual show<\/a> over the reservoir, though the decision was much more heavily influenced by safety concerns surrounding crowds and traffic than fires. On a particularly busy day in late January, emergency services from around the county complained that prolific traffic and crowds had become a legitimate factor in inhibiting emergency operations throughout the county<\/a>, and Frisco feared that an even bigger turnout to their fireworks show in the wake of Breckenridge\u2019s cancellation could create major public safety concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big issues had to do with life safety, and concerns in emergency response and the volume of guests,\u201d said Diane McBride, Frisco\u2019s director of recreation and assistant town manager. \u201cAll of that came into play when we made that decision, and a lot of those same concerns were raised when Dillon proposed having the fireworks.\u201d<\/p>\n

In early April, Dillon began discussions to step in and fill the void. Despite some concerns from staff<\/a> \u2014 including Dillon Police chief Mark Heminghous \u2014 that the town may not have sufficient time to plan the event, nor the resources to effectively police the event, the town was still pushing forward with the show until the rejection at the DRReC meeting last week.<\/p>\n

In addition to any fireworks over the reservoir getting axed, Keystone Resort also decided not to incorporate a fireworks display as part of their Fourth of July celebrations this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter consideration of a number of factors, we are confident Keystone will continue to serve as an ideal location for an Independence Day celebration,\u201d said Geoff Buchheister, vice president and general manager for Keystone Resort. \u201cKeystone is proud to offer families and guests a variety of activities and events to enjoy the Fourth of July holiday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of the lack of fireworks in the county this year, officials are optimistic that there\u2019s still plenty of programming to draw visitors to the area and give locals a fun holiday. Among the most notable Fourth of July events this year are a performance from the National Repertory Orchestra at Rainbow Park in Silverthorne in the morning, live music and parades throughout the day in Frisco and Breckenridge, and a performance by The Air Force Academy Band at Dillon Amphitheater to close out the night.<\/p>\n

Of note, Anderson said that while the town won\u2019t be doing fireworks this Fourth of July, that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean fireworks won\u2019t be returning sometime in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn general the community is reevaluating how we manage big events collectively, and that\u2019s going to be a process that each entity is going to need to come together to find where those parameters are and what works,\u201d said Anderson. \u201cThe council needs to have a discussion and consider whether fireworks for Labor Day is a direction they\u2019d want to go, knowing it\u2019s a tough fire time of year, or looking at doing something at another time of year like the Lighting of Dillon. But fireworks are not off the table in Dillon.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fireworks over the Dillon Reservoir on July 4, 2017.Hugh Carey \/ hcarey@summitdaily.com The county will be a little quieter this Fourth of July with no fireworks over Lake Dillon as community officials continue to consider the impacts of large crowds in the area. The town of Dillon officially pulled the plug on their planned fireworks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-24422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 07:15:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIFT - The LIFT FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}