To all the Cave Creek and Carefree residents, businesses owners, and to all our visitors from around Arizona and the United States who were truly looking forward to seeing Cave Creek’s 3rd of July Fireworks this year:
Harold’s and the other sponsoring local businesses are announcing the Town of Cave Creeks cancellation of our annual 3rd of July Fireworks show, a 25-year, Cave Creek, fun family tradition. Please check out all our websites and Facebook pages to see what we will be doing instead — we are grateful for your business and support through these slow summer months.
In the 25 years of hosting this spectacular show, we have entertained over 150,000 spectators and we have raised more than $100,000 in donations for many local charities, including the 100 Club of Arizona and the Foothills Food Bank. For those planning to bring canned goods and donations this year, we encourage you to donate directly: https://www.foothillsfoodbank.com/
Since last week, we’ve heard from many patrons who shared their stories of how the 3rd of July Fireworks event helps bring people together. We were overwhelmed with support from people who took the time to call and email us or post messages of support on social media channels.
We’re also proud of how our local businesses have worked together over the years to produce a fun, safe event that draws traffic from all parts of the state. We estimate that in the past 25 years, this tradition has generated more than $2 million dollars of additional revenue to local businesses during our slow summer months.
We were very sensitive to the safety concerns that the Town presented to us, and we addressed those concerns above and beyond any of our shows in the past 25 years and the safe fireworks show the Town allowed to happen on May 26th.
We are disappointed that Cave Creek’s leaders allowed selective enforcement and passed a new code that was ambiguous at best and allowed one individual to have the power to cancel our great tradition.
We will be asking these same leaders to change the code in weeks to come, so we have a more definitive code and have the true fire safety experts make that decision, not a town employee lacking knowledge. We will be asking for your support in the upcoming elections.
It’s important to recognize our council members and the Mayor, who all took the time to listen to our concerns and have acknowledged that we should have a discussion on the Town’s fireworks code.
The following Town officials went above and beyond the call of duty to listen to our concerns, offer informative feedback and acknowledge our disappointment.
Fire Chief John Kratz Town Manager Carrie Dyrek
The following council members:
Ron Souva, Susan Clancy, David Smith, Thomas McGuire.
We are looking forward to working with all of them after this year’s election.
Finally, we realize this has been a controversial topic and we want to thank those of you who shared your opposing views with us. There have been a lot of debates about this topic, and thankfully, most of the discourse has been civilized.
Please have a safe, fun 4th of July holiday celebrating our great nation’s Independence Day in the best small town I know in America, Cave Creek Arizona.
Sincerely,
Danny Piacquadio
