Charleroi OKs July 4 fireworks

By ERIC SEIVERLING

eseiverling@yourmvi.com

The show will go on in Charleroi.

The Fourth of July and Community Day fireworks shows, at least.

At a special meeting Tuesday, council members gave the green light to move forward with the annual Independence Day event, which will be held at 9:30 p.m. at Charleroi Community Park.

The Community Day fireworks display will be held Aug. 15.

The borough has $5,000 budgeted for both fireworks displays, and council President Mark Alterici said residents have also donated approximately $500 toward the events.

Alterici joined Jerry Jericho, Judy Cheplic, Heidi Cramer, Nancy Ellis and Jeannine Motycki in supporting July 4 fireworks, while Frank Paterra cast the lone no vote.

The decision to hold the display comes after council voted earlier this month to cancel the extravaganza due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Council took a position of rejecting fireworks this year,” Paterra said before Tuesday’s vote. “The reason we did, it’s not that we didn’t want it, it’s that we were worried about the COVID-19 epidemic. My concern is what prompted this meeting that we had to spend money to advertise a meeting to look at this again?”

Alterici said there was no pressure from the community, and the money to advertise the meeting came out of his own pocket.

Motycki said the decision to revisit the fireworks display occurred after she had a conversation with the borough’s emergency management coordinator, Glenn Shipley.

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