With no fireworks to light, some Great Bend residents have canceled Fourth of July block parties scheduled for Wednesday. Others say the parties will go on, in their own way, and still others say their parties aren’t canceled, but postponed until the next big firecracker day.
No one is sure when that will be, only that Great Bend won’t light fireworks until there’s been rain – the kind that soaks into the ground and cools things off. But fireworks fans know that day will come, and are buying their firecrackers and nightworks now, while they can.
Permits for block parties are handled by Megan Cates, executive assistant at the Great Bend City Office. She stops accepting permits around June 27 and never lets the number exceed 20. Although several neighborhoods hold the parties year after year, this year only 15 permits were requested. Either due to the extreme weather or because the Fourth of July falls on a Wednesday, the requests stopped long before it was suggested there might not be fireworks this week.
The permits allow residents to use barricades to designate the party area. However, barricades are positioned on one side of the street, so as to allow emergency vehicles access. There is a $50 deposit for use of City barricades, but if they are returned on time and undamaged, and the street is clean, that deposit is refunded.
For the first time in more than a decade, Jon Briel said he and his neighbors won’t be holding a Fourth of July block party. Most years, the party runs from Monroe to Jackson on 17th St.
“We’ve never not been able to have it, even on 105-degree days,” he said. There’s usually a huge picnic for family and neighbors, and people come from out of town. Briel said he does look forward to a cooler and safer day when that party will be held. “All of the firecrackers have been purchased.”
Willy Allen said his all-day party in the middle of Great Bend won’t include the usual afternoon fireworks, but he’s still planning to serve breakfast to 125 relatives, friends and neighbors Wednesday morning. (Not wanting party crashers, he asked for the exact location of the block party to remain unpublished.) They’ve had this party “18 years running,” he said.
Wednesday afternoon, however, those who would normally be popping firecrackers will turn to other amusements. “We’ll probably golf, swim in the backyard, or maybe go fishing,” Allen said.
First-time block party permit holder Mike Minton lives in a neighborhood that is teeming with youth — 20 kids on his block alone. Their party, which would have closed a section between Harrison and Jackson streets, was canceled when the City announced there would be no shooting of fireworks on Wednesday.
“We are not going to have it this year,” Minton said. “If we’re not having fireworks, we’re not sitting outside in 100-degree weather.”
But for all, the block party tradition will go on. Minton, like other disappointed block partiers, said, “We’ll have another day to do it."