Fireworks are being provided at the lower end of the Salem Golf and Country Club (directly across from Salem Faith Assembly Church) on July 4 at 8:30 p.m., according to Catherine Dent, one of the organizers of the event.
There will be no parking access through the country club. Vendors will be stationed at the Salem Faith Assembly Church, according to Bill Parsons.
Salem’s annual Fourth of July fireworks display cost the city $18,000, according to city officials in a Jan. 3 meeting of the Finance Committee. During the same meeting, the committee voted to recommend against the city continuing to fund the event, citing financial issues currently facing the city.
Since then, the Salem Cosmopolitan Club has been gathering donations in an effort to keep the event alive. Nathan Phelps, who helps on the technical side of the Cosmopolitan Club’s Miss Salem pageant, is a licensed pyrotechnician. Dent said Phelps showed the club members an example of his award-winning work, sparking interest in starting the collection effort. Phelps said he could put on a display for as little as $5,000.
“It was this fireworks display that he’d set to music, and it was awesome!” said Dent.
“All Nathan needs is $5,000 to do this display, so we thought why can’t we do that? Phelps says his work will be different from most other municipal displays.
“What you’re basically getting is a $25,000 show for five grand,” said Phelps. “We were really impressed by what he’d done,” said Dent.
“In the past the fireworks have just been, you know, boom, boom, high in the sky. This is different. Very different.” “That’s something people need to know. This is a show that’s different than what they’ve ever seen before because it’s choreographed to music,” said Phelps.
