Kailua folks upset
July 4 fireworks is ending
Beachgoers and shoppers in Kailua yesterday didn't like hearing that a 50-year tradition -- Fourth of July fireworks at Kailua Beach -- is coming to an end this year.
The Kailua Chamber of Commerce decided last month to stop organizing the popular event, which draws thousands and is a family tradition for many Windward residents.
The chamber instead will follow its annual Fourth of July parade with a "Freedom Festival" at Kailua District Park, to include music, food booths and activities for children, President David Earles said yesterday.
"Fireworks, you gotta do that. You gotta celebrate America, the Fourth of July, the freedom that we have to live here where it's so beautiful," protested Fanchea Jordan of Punaluu as she headed out to kayak in Kailua Bay yesterday.
"It's a tradition in Kailua. I'm going to miss it myself," said Roy Oliveira.
"For kids, it's a safe alternative to street fireworks," said Erin Caveney, who grew up in Kailua with the family tradition of a beach picnic followed by fireworks.
It's not that the chamber doesn't like fireworks, Earles said, but that it doesn't see the now $23,000 show as being the right focus for the organization.
Even now, "we'd love to have somebody else step forward and take it on," said Earles. But the chamber, which tried once before to quit the fireworks business in 2000, has made up its mind, he said.
Mike McKenna's Windward Ford and Windward Volkswagen-Mazda was one of five businesses contributing $3,000 each toward the Kailua fireworks show last year -- which was canceled by high wind.
"I wanted to keep it on, but at $23,000 it was impossible," said McKenna. He's not optimistic that others will take over the fireworks mantle, because "the majority of businesses on Windward side are small businesses."
When the chamber asked residents to phone in opinions on whether to continue the tradition earlier this year, the response was to keep doing it, Earles said, but there were no offers of financing.
Chamber member Karon Chang, an owner of Jeff Chang Pottery, said she doubts that the show generates any additional income for Kailua retailers.
The cost of the show shot up several years ago when it stopped using Flat Island in Kailua Bay as a staging ground for the show, Earles said.
But Tina Dean, a former Kailua resident who now lives in Kaneohe, thinks that people will miss the tradition so much they may be willing to pitch in.
"It's a really big annual event. It's a family event. Some people's relatives plan their vacations around it," Dean said.
The upside, at least for this year, is that the Marine Corps Base Kaneohe's popular BayFest will be held on Fourth of July weekend this year -- and will include a fireworks show.
Jeff Jervik, owner of Papa John's Hawaii and a past co-sponsor of the Kailua fireworks, said he's hopeful that the civilian community can begin coordinating Fourth of July celebrations with BayFest.
A Marine spokesperson couldn't be reached for comment yesterday about that possibility.