City manager: Middletown needs more community events

MIDDLETOWN —

If Middletown is going to rebuild and grow, then city officials have to find ways to restore some of the quality of life amenities that have been lost over the past decade due to budget cuts, City Manager Doug Adkins said.

“Quality of life is part of the equation of bringing Middletown back to its most prosperous form,” Adkins told the Journal-News on Thursday. “Over the years, we’ve gotten rid of all our quality of life things. It’s critical if we want to start growing again.”

One step in that direction might be finding a way to bring a city-sponsored fireworks show back to Middletown for the Fourth of July.

Adkins said the citizen-driven July 4 fireworks show in the city’s south end that drew nearly 1,000 people shined a spotlight on the fact that residents want more quality community gatherings around town. Police had to shut down that pyrotechnics display, however, because the organizers did not have the proper permits to legally set off fireworks in the city.

The city manager said he wants to explore some low-cost or no-cost ways the city could bring back festivities such as the fireworks and other events throughout the year that bring the community together — like the Broad Street Bash summer concert series and this weekend’s Ohio Challenge hot-air balloon festival. He said he plans to raise the issue with City Council as to whether they want to make fireworks a priority in next year’s budget.

“The money has to be there. It’s tough when you are making cuts to police and fire to talk about this sort of thing, but it’s not my decision to make,” Adkins said. “However, I would advocate that we start looking at things like that (fireworks). It may be a year or two out before we can make something like that happen.”

Mayor Larry Mulligan said it’s too early to say for sure if the city could afford to pay for a fireworks show on Independence Day. He said such an event falls into “the nice-things-to-have category,” but the city would have to explore some creative ways to pull it off financially. Mulligan said it might take a while, but he believes there are enough people in town who would be willing to step up to help fund a fireworks display if asked.

“It’s important to have community events that bring people out to gather together and enjoy one another’s company,” Adkins said. “If the city doesn’t offer it, somebody else will try to fill in the vacuum.”

That’s exactly what has been happening in the city’s south end for the past five or six years. Middletown has not had a consistent Fourth of July fireworks show since the demise of the All-American Weekend in 2006 after a 26-year run. Residents who wanted to have a fun and positive community event with fireworks started their own festival near Barnitz Stadium, and steadily grew the crowd each year until it reached several hundred spectators last Friday.

While well-intentioned, the event lacked the proper paperwork or fireworks specialists for city officials to allow it to continue, Adkins said. However, city officials are more than willing to work with organizers of the event to insure they get the right permits, liability insurance and other requirements to offer fireworks next year, if they so choose, he said.

“I met with the organizers today (Thursday) and told them we would work with them on getting a permit and finding a way legally that fireworks could be done,” Adkins said, noting the city is doing additional research on what is legally required by the state of Ohio to conduct a fireworks show.

There was still no word from police on Thursday about charges against those who organized the “unsanctioned” fireworks show last Friday. Police Chief David VanArsdale said earlier this week that “charges were pending,” and on Thursday he referred questions from this newspaper to the city prosecutor. The Journal-News was unable to immediately reach anyone in the city’s law department.

Dora Bronston, president of the Middletown NAACP and a member of City Council, said she met with the police chief and city manager on Monday to discuss how the shutting down of the July 4 fireworks show was handled. Many residents and attendees were angered by the show of force by police — at least a dozen police cruisers showed up at the scene, according to some reports — and the fact they waited until the very last moment to show down the festivities, rather than notifying organizers earlier in the day.

Bronston said they agreed that all parties involved could have handled the situation better, including some angry festival-goers who tossed fire crackers and sparklers at police vehicles.

“The police need to be sensitive to the community, especially when people are coming together around something positive, and not be an intimidating force,” she said. “And on the other hand, it’s their job to make sure we are safe so that nobody explodes fireworks and gets hurt. They had all the right reasons to say not to have the fireworks; I agree with all that. I don’t agree with the way it was handled.”

Bronston said better communication by police and organizers could have prevented the confrontation.

“Everybody overreacted on both sides of the fence.”

But Bronston said the focus now should be on moving forward and uniting as a community, not on division. She suggested that there might be an opportunity for organizers of the south end celebration to work with city officials to grow their event.

“Let’s make things right and let’s build some relationship here,” she said.

Adkins agreed, saying “mistakes were made all the way around.”

“Our response was not handled gracefully,” he said. “We are focused on how do we do better moving forward.”