ASHLAND — The fireworks event known as “Thunder Over Ashland” has been canceled by the fire company sponsor due to lack of available help and funds.
American Hose Company President Philip C. Groody, who is also the Ashland fire chief, made the announcement at Wednesday’s meeting of Ashland Borough Council that the 20-year tradition will no longer be sponsored by the fire company.
Borough Manager Raymond Jones Jr. read a letter from Groody to the borough council during the meeting.
“It is with heavy heart that we must inform you that we will no longer sponsor the ‘Thunder Over Ashland’ fireworks display,” Groody wrote. “At our last meeting in January, our membership voted to discontinue the program. We have discussed this for the last several months, bringing to light two main issues which was driving our decision. They are lack of available help and funding.”
Last year was the 20th anniversary of the fireworks program. Up until 1996, Ashland did not have an official fireworks program, Groody explained in 2013. There had been smaller fireworks displays in previous years put on by some local organizations, but nothing as impressive as the current programs. Fire company members had discussed the idea of sponsoring annual fireworks in the 1990s, and eventually things came together in 1996. Groody has been a co-chairman since the beginning. His current co-chairman is Brian McCabe.
After the letter was read, Groody told the council and public, “This was not a knee-jerk decision. There was much deliberation. It is simply the lack of help and lack of funding.”
Groody said on Thursday in a telephone interview, “When we started 20 years ago, we had 30-plus active members. Now that number is considerably less, and the same few people doing the whole job, and they can’t do it anymore. In the last couple of years, the funding has been drying up. We had a couple of shows in a row that we didn’t cover our expenses. We stuck it out to get 20 shows, and we did OK last year.”
In the letter, Groody said, “Like everything else, the cost keeps rising year after year. Compared to the very first year’s budget of $5,000 to last year’s budget of $13,000, it takes a lot of man-hours to raise that kind of money.”
Groody said Thursday that factors out of the fire company’s control led to the sad decision.
“With all due respect to the citizens and businesses, they did what they could do for us, but look at the decline of our population.” he said. “Our town is shrinking. And we probably have about half of the businesses we had 20 years ago.”
Groody said the tradition of having a large fireworks display around Independence Day became very popular, bringing in people from around the area to watch at or near Memorial Field at the top of the borough.
“Thousands and thousands of people would come to Ashland,” Groody said.
In more recent years, the spectacular fireworks displays were presented by Bixler Pyrotechnics Inc., Ashland. Groody thanked owner Michael Bixler and his employees for the great work they did each year.
“He did very, very well for us and treated us well,” Groody said. “He was always over his budget to make sure we had a good show. He’s sad, too, because this was his flagship show, so to speak. This is where he got his roots in the area. He did very wondrous things for us.”
Groody said the fire company volunteers put in much work to fundraise and prepare for a show and cleanup afterward.
“The man-hours that went into this operation was just staggering,” Groody said. “Going door to door for donations is a labor-intense operation. We have a handful of people to do that, and we’d have tag days with only six guys who would stand on the streets for the whole time. There was no relief. Setting up on the day is a project, then you have cleanup afterward. We’d get down to our firehouse with all our kitchen equipment after 11 o’clock, have a meal, count the money, and we’d get to bed at 2 o’clock and then two or three guys would go up to the field the next day for the daytime cleanup. And we would need to go around to collect the signs. It’s a lot.”
Groody thanked the borough for its support, including the police department, fire police, Washington Fire Company and the Washington Fire Company Community Ambulance.
The borough council members expressed their disappointment at the news and thanked Groody and American Hose for their efforts over the years for the fireworks programs.