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Last Saturday's Independence Day celebration went off without a hitch, but the organizers, the Village Center Organization (VCO), have yet to break even.
"I think the quality of the [fireworks] shoot and the noise and colors were as good as other years, but with $2,000 less than last year for the display, the fireworks were shorter," said Ms. Lillis, the chairman of the fireworks program, earlier this week.
"Up until 10 days before the shoot, I could have extended it if we got the money," she said.
What is also "shorter" is the money to pay for the display.
Telstar Display Fireworks of New Hampshire provides the pyrotechnics, "and the smallest shoot they do costs $7,000," said Ms. Lillis, the owner of Lennie's Flower Shop in downtown New Milford.
That's all the VCO could contract for this year, she said, because it only had $1,588 left from last year's donations to put toward the event and money was slow in coming in.
For that money, New Milford got a 15-minute program, compared to previous years, when the display lasted for 22 minutes.
"Anything extra always goes toward next year's fireworks-I use it for a deposit when I make the contract-but this year we have nothing left. We had to use $2,800 from the VCO treasury to pay for everything, and we're still looking for donations," Ms. Lillis said.
She noted that an anonymous donor, who was not able to attend the event, had offered $1,500 in matching funds but she wasn't able to raise enough to receive it all.
"He was very generous and still gave us $1,000 toward the fireworks after we received most of the matching funds by the deadline," she said.
Roughly another $1,000 was needed for other expenses associated with the event, such as the bonding and state permit fees and payment for the entertainment-this year the Sonny Carroll Dance Band and Respect Due, the Bob Marley tribute band-that is held on the Green as part of the Fourth of July celebration as well as the rental of portable toilets, according to Ms. Lillis.
"The Marley tribute band was nice enough to do it for gratis because we just didn't have the money to pay for it and it was important for us to have music that would appeal to everybody," she said, adding that Best Sanitation provided its trash pickup services for free as well.
And there was something else the public wouldn't necessarily know about, she said.
"The town does support us, with police and fire protection," Ms. Lillis said, "and they are available longer than people think. As soon as the [firework] shells arrive in the truck, the fire department volunteers and the fire marshal have to be on the site-that's the law. "They're at the site 10 or 12 hours, and I bring them pizza and water because it's a long time to be there," the fireworks chairman said.
Ms. Lillis pointed out that this is just an example of the "lot of people" who help with New Milford's annual downtown celebration on the Fourth of July.
"But we still need more help and would be grateful for donations," she said, adding that they are tax-deductible. Checks should be made payable to NM Charitable Fund Inc., c/o Lennie Lillis, Lennie's Flower Shop, 14 Elm St., New Milford, CT 06776.
