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Fireworks fizzle at Marco's Fourth celebration
The city of Marco Island is asking for a full refund after show ends abruptly after 10 minutes
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Wednesday night’s Independence Day celebration had more fizzle than sizzle on Marco Island.
Photo Gallery
Marco's 4th
The fourth of July celebration on Marco Island
Instead of a patriotic fireworks show lasting about 25 minutes, it abruptly ended after about 10 minutes because of mechanical difficulties on the barge where the fireworks were being shot off, said Lisa Douglass, a spokeswoman for the city of Marco Island.
The 5,026-shell show came with a $40,000 price tag for the city.
“The city staff (is) extremely disappointed in the show results,” Douglass said.
“The city’s contract manager intends to demand a full recovery of all costs from the fireworks contractor.”
The Marco show was “obviously short,” said Charlie Rappa, the president of the company hired this year to run the annual fireworks display.
“We’ll credit the city,” said Rappa, with Pyro Engineering/Bay Fireworks, headquartered in Huntington Station, N.Y. “Residents deserve the show they should have gotten.”
Rappa said the problem with the abbreviated show was weather related. Although weather was OK in Marco on the Fourth of July, he said crews encountered poor weather during the couple of days when the barge was being loaded in Fort Myers with the pyrotechnics.
“Mixing water and electronics doesn’t bode very well,” Rappa said. “You can only do so many things to safeguard against the weather.”
Marco Island’s show is not the only South Florida show presented by Pyro Engineering that fizzled out this year. Problems with electrical wiring cut off the last 5 minutes of the Fort Lauderdale fireworks beach show Wednesday night, the Sun-Sentinel reported Thursday.
A malfunction on the barge used as a launch site prevented the grand finale from going off, according to a city spokeswoman the Sun-Sentinel quoted. The city planned to seek a price reduction, the spokeswoman said.
Douglass said the short Marco show may have been a culmination of several factors leading up to the 9 p.m. event.
Around 7 p.m., the Marco fire marshal boarded the barge containing the annual fireworks display for a scheduled inspection. The inspection was required to check the inventory, and to ensure that fire codes were met, Douglass said.
According to Douglass, the inspection revealed inventory discrepancies and routine industry code standards that were not in compliance. Douglass said Thursday morning she did not know what the violations were, since the report was not complete.
Douglass said she could not comment on whether these code violations would have caused a safety risk for those people on the barge or watching the show.
“There were a combination of concerns, but I don’t want to comment on those until (the report is final),” she said.
According to an initial report, the company immediately corrected the non-compliance issues and a permit was issued at 7:45 p.m.
The show started, as scheduled, around 9 p.m. The barge was about 800 feet offshore in the area north of the Marco Island Marriott Beach Resort in the vicinity of the Royal Seafarer. Douglass said several thousand people attended the event, including many of the guests at the resort.
During the show, Douglass said, there appeared to be delays in the shell firing. About 10 minutes into show the fireworks stopped and the fire marshal called the barge to see what the problem was, Douglass said.
“The fire marshal contacted the barge to learn that a malfunction occurred in the firing system of the show,” Douglass said in an e-mail Thursday. “The barge further informed the fire marshal that the problem could not be corrected, therefore the show was ended.”
Douglass said a clause in the city’s contract could allow them to receive all of the money back. This year the finance department included a performance bond, Douglass said. The clause states that if someone did not perform up to a predetermined performance standard, the city could be refunded their money.
But refunded money doesn’t necessarily mean another fireworks display.
“It hasn’t been determined yet if there will be another show,” she said. “That may be something the City Council discusses at their next meeting on July 16.”
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Multimedia news editor Tim Aten contributed to this report.
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Need to use a new company next year. Bay fireworks of Myrtle Beach South Carolina did not do a good job.
#1 Posted by 15yearsmarco on July 5, 2007 at 1:05 p.m. (Suggest removal)
So people had to entertain themselves for the last 15 minutes...it wasn't all that bad. If it hadn't been for the fizzle, people probably wouldn't have even noticed the kids decoorated with light necklaces doing cartwheels or the luminating airplane doing loops overhead. It was a nice function, let's not beat it to death.
#2 Posted by Mercedes on July 5, 2007 at 4:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
just like everything else moss does....sinks.
#3 Posted by van on July 5, 2007 at 7:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I was ready to go home early anyway because I noticed no one around me was speaking English.
#4 Posted by 26yearsonmarco on July 5, 2007 at 8:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Right on the money chase100
The city will vigourously pursue a refund from a stupid fireworks display but lets QE of the hook for screwing up our city, how symbolic a 4th it really was.
#5 Posted by exposed on July 5, 2007 at 9:05 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Chase100,
I am not adding anything except to support your comments.
Lisa was trying to show that the city is behaving responsibly...what happened before?? What was the deal with QE?? Why will the city not address this issue? Why will the council not address this issue?
#6 Posted by Marcoite on July 5, 2007 at 9:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Most of the above bloggers must have such unhappy lives; living in dark rooms day and night;hoping for something, anything to go wrong so they can bang on their miserable keyboards with their miserable little fingers to blame someone; to hurt someone; to destroy lives. Of course they collectively missed the fact that it was Independence Day; a very meaningful holiday especially when our brave men and women are in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting to preserve the freedom these geeky bloggers undeservingly enjoy on a paradise like Marco Island. Can you miserable little humanoids stop for a moment and enjoy life as it is presented to you on a daily basis, instead of whining like a bunch of spoiled little brats day and night?
#7 Posted by patton1 on July 5, 2007 at 11:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)
billybobnobs: No! I wrote something. I guess you can't read. Ignorance must be bliss as they say!
#8 Posted by patton1 on July 6, 2007 at 12:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)
billybobnobs: No! I wrote something. I guess you can't read. Ignorance must be bliss as they say!
#9 Posted by patton1 on July 6, 2007 at 12:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Patton1, who are these people whose lives have been destroyed? These wouldn't be people that picked our pockets for a sewer expansion that wasn't needed, would it? The people you defend destroyed their own lives. They made the choices to take our money without our consent for their own personal projects. They did so without public discussion. Emails released reveal that they felt it was all too complicated to place on a referendum. One of them even is fond of telling everyone, he doesn't care what the public thinks. Don't blame the citizens of our City for being angry with a City Manager that has made himself a Mayor by manipulating a Council that is self-serving and willing to let the CM do as he pleases. Don't blame our citizen's because we have a City Council that thinks nothing of extending their own terms without the consent of the electorate. I see no personal sacrifice by this Council or the City Manager, no consideration for doing the right thing. I see no love of community, only a desire to tramp on the powerless. How dare you use our brave fighting men and woman to make a stupid political point. Life would be much more enjoyable if you would stop writing here.
#10 Posted by Lolala on July 6, 2007 at 6:34 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Can anyone miss the symbolism? Does anything work on Marco Island? Girard R. Visconti's predations drove us from our Rhode Island homestead so that 'leeches', including Larry 'Little Larry Loans' O'Keefe, Jr., Linda 'Promissory Notes' Zecchino, and Dorothy 'Vinnie, Jr.', "He put you back in da will, but I take you out" Adams, could continue looting family wealth.
As proof of God's benevolence, we found an elegant home on Manasota Key. From its cupola you can see fireworks from across the street, to Blind Pass Beach, all the way to Venice and Punta Gorda. This, despite the fact every Fourth rains to some extent. Fireworks light our skies, why not Markograd's?
Why should they? Don't fireworks symbolize freedom?
Markograd adheres to the Old Traditions, doing its part to Recover the Wealth of Nations. It condemns good septics so that sewer barons can profit, and falsely accuses whistleblowers of planting asbetos.
How's that for a projective statement? Who profits from asbestos dumping?
When responsible adult offspring try to stop proxy murder for profit, "Perjury Pat" Stoye, Mark V. Silverio, and George Allen Wilson, II, pimp a restraining order via false evidence for ulterior motives, as the guilty get away.
When defrauded sons of murdered mothers, husbands of wives threatened with same, dare to caution others about this 'crime syndicate', they violate the sanctity of our home with e-mail threats to sue for Libel. Good. Please bring paperwork explaining why "Dr. Vincent Zecchino, M.D." left syringes, needles, and vials beneath his wife's bed, subsequent to her curious 'relapse'. Recovery was inconvenient, y'see, as Lifescam of Rhode Island was snookering over ten million dollars from a 92 year old man in Dementia.
Bring paperwork which squares with the Living Trust of 1957, 'for Paul and his famiy'. Please do.
Predators always, invariably, do and threaten to do to others, that which they most fear. Is that why those who filed a false restraining order pulled every gag to avoid prosecuting it?
When this suppurating garbage bag of murder, avarice, and vanity busts open, it won't be with a pop. As with all, decades lies and treachery will slop forth with a wheeze, then wither, and evaporate, as the innocent are at last, vindicated.
A 95 year old man, thirty years in dementia, testifying against his 'bad, evil, son', while his wife - among others - lies murdered, and 'leeches' loot? Would you bring that mess to court?
Of course fireworks fail in Markograd. Castro never had much success with them, either, nor his little simian sidekick, che. But at least they live in splendor while others are reduced to nothing.
Truth, like murder, always outs. always.
Dr. Paul Vincent Zecchino
Manasota Key, Florida
06 July, 2007
Of course fireworks fail on Markograd.
#11 Posted by paul_vincent_zecchino on July 6, 2007 at 7:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Patton1 says: "Can you miserable little humanoids stop for a moment and enjoy life as it is presented to you on a daily basis, instead of whining like a bunch of spoiled little brats day and night?"
What he fails to realize is that this fiasco IS representative of "life on a daily basis on Marco" and we DON'T enjoy it. The City hires third-rate contractors who pollute our island with asbestos, rebuild a main thoroughfare so that it is as ripply as the one it replaced, fails to oversee the work, fails to demand that contracts are respected and we're supposed to "enjoy it." Get real!
Ed Foster
#12 Posted by EdFoster on July 6, 2007 at 8:41 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Seriously people, get a life. It was simply a few missed fireworks; it should not have been a life altering experience. For a group of people that brag about "living in paradise", you sure have bad attitudes.
#13 Posted by Mercedes on July 6, 2007 at 9:14 a.m. (Suggest removal)
MarcoRobert, maybe the people writing here see a trend developing. Seeing how he writes them himself, I doubt that this most recent failure will even see the light of day on Moss's next evaluation. Which mad doctor are you referring to? The one that sits on our Council ignoring the will of our citizens and shuffling papers during meetings?
#14 Posted by Hawke1 on July 8, 2007 at 6:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)
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