HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016 07-05 Were St. Paul's July 4th fireworks great or lame? Depends on where you sat PIONEER PRESS7/6/2016
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Some complain about St. Paul's July 4 fireworks at CHS Field
greatWere St. Paul"s July 4th fireworks •- •
where you sat
By II' II'klll ll:'ulll ll'kIICIhf IIii11111.1V I finelo@pioneerpress.com
PUBLISHED: July 5, 2016 at 3:33 pm I UPDATED: July 5, 2016 at 5:42 pm
Where you stand on Fourth of July fireworks d is play probably depends where you sat.
For the second year in a row, St. Paul's downtown fireworks took place over CHS Field, Lowertown's new baseball park. But people who camped out nearby at
the Minnesota State Capitol Mall or the St. Paul High Bridge said they could barely see a spark.
And if you watched Maplewood's abbreviated fireworks or Mendota Heights' —where sprinklers went off in afield —you might also have been disappointed.
Some who went to St. Paul's Indian Mounds Regional Park, expecting prime viewing for the Saints' fireworks show, saw ... nothing.
"The best part of the city of St. Paul's unviewable fireworks show is the massive crowd still waiting that doesn't realize that they're over," said St. Paul resident
Jesse Buetow, in a series of unhappy Tweets on social media Monday night.
Buetow, who lives in the Mounds Park neighborhood, said in an interview that the park used to draw hundreds of visitors year afteryear on July 4. "it was
packed" back then, he said.
Monday night, the crowd of "a couple hundred ... was still a crowd, but it was not nearly what it used to be," he said. And the view from the bluffs was
nonexistent, with the exception of a small part in the trees at the overlook.
With a financial contribution from the city, the St. Paul Saints hosted the fireworks show Monday after their game against the Joplin Blasters. Those in the
ballpark raved over the rapid-fire spectacle that unfolded just after 9:30 p.m.
"They were pretty awesome," said downtown resident Jim Ivey, on Twitter. "Not especially creative, just visual overload."
City officials said twice as many fireworks were shot than last year, though the show was lower because the U.S. 52 / Lafayette Bridge river crossing is now open
afteryears of construction.
Saints officials said RES Pyrotechnics designed the display to be viewable to anyone within CHS Field, and attendance after the game was free. Costs were shared
with the city, but team and city officials did not have exact amounts offhand.
"We opened the gates at nine o'clock and anyone who wanted to come in could come in," said Saints vice president Tom Whaley.
Last year, Minneapolis resident Stephen Hoffer took his wife, young son and daughter to Mounds Park, hoping for a spectacular show, and ended up finding one
spot in the park where he could see "the tips ofsome of the highest bursts," he said. He expressed surprise that no improvements for surrounding neighborhood
crowds had been made.
"I would have thought after last year that they would have said 'OK, that doesn't work' and they would have learned from that and redirected people to a better
location," Hoffer said. "We won't go back."
Also last year, the game against the Fargo -Moorhead Redhawks went extra innings, leaving viewers waiting well past 11 p.m. for the show to start. The display
had been scheduled for "approximately 10 p.m.," or whenever the game ended.
"Last year's fireworks were such a huge disappointment — extremely late to start and hardly able to be seen — and I was only about a block away on Kellogg
(Boulevard)," said social media user Teri _Aon TwinCities.com. "Ugh. I think I'll be going to Minneapolis from now on."
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7/6/2016 Some complain about St. Paul's July 4 fireworks at CHS Field
This year, the Saints emphasized in advance on their website that the timing of the display would be uncertain.
One source of confusion last years prang fro m the fact that people were find ing2014 an noun cements online that fiievvoi lu; would sti I I hed is p Iay(Kove thestate
C`apitoI1 a I Ides pitethedeparture oft he Taste of Minnesota fro m the Capita I City. Farni lies tripping across the outdated an nouncernent last year headed back to
the mall to discover they had limited views.
This year, even the police conducting crowd control at Mounds Park were surprised to discover the show was a virtual no-go. The park had been advertised as a
good viewing spot in 2015.
"There was a nice crowd offamilies and individuals that had gathered," said Steve Lind ers, a St. Paul polices pokes m an.
But officers at the park on Monday could not see fireworks, Linde rs said.
About 30 minutes after the display ended, an officer at CHS Field called a commander at Mounds Park to notify her the fireworks were over, according to Linders.
Officers made their way through the crowd to notify people that, if they were thereto seethe fireworks, they were out of luck.
"People packed up their things and went home," according to Linde rs, who said everyone was cooperative.
It's unclear if CHS Field will bet he permanent home of St. Paul's Fourth of July fireworks. "Part of what I'm wondering is how long-term this is," said City Council
Member Rebecca Noecker, who said she planned to follow-up with Visit St. Paul, the city's tourism coordinator, a longtime funder of the display. "Clearly, we
need to do better to make sure people can actually seethe fireworks. They're such an important part of our tradition."
St. Paul wasn't the only city hosting a fireworks show that fizzled. Ina statement, officials with the city of Maplewood blamed dry weather conditions and
equipment malfunctions for the decision to end their display midway through the show.
Some 16,000 attendees went home without seeing the grand finale.
"City staff noticed that pieces of paper and cardboard from the fireworks were landing on the ground near event attendees," reads the statement. "Out of an
abundance of concern forth e safety of thousands of people attending the event, Maplewood staff directed the contracted fireworks display vendor to
immediately discontinue the launch of fireworks."
Maplewood paramedics assisted one person who reported getting apiece of fireworks ash in an eye but did not need to betaken to a hospital. City officials have
promised to meet with the vendor to determine the source of the problem.
Some cities or local businesses forgot to turnoff their nighttime water sprinklers, dousing visitors in certain popular viewing areas. Residents in Mendota Heights
and other suburbs reported watching au fun show that included au cold sPncvwei .
Mara H. Gottfried and Marino Eccher contributed to this report.
Tags: St. Paul
Frederick Melo came tot he Pioneer Press in 2005 and brings an aggressive East Coast attitude to St. Paul beat reporting. He spent nearly six
years covering crime in the Dakota County courts before switching focus to the St. Paul mayor's office, city council, and all things neighborhood -
related, from the city's churches to its parks and light rail. A resident of Hamline-Midway, he is married to a Frogtown woman. He Tweets
manically at @FrederickMelo
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