Wyandotte Officials to Vote Monday to End City's Annual Independence Day Fireworks Show

Wyandotte officials are moving ahead with their plans of

that this was expected to occur due to the rising cost of putting on the event. They’re now ready to make that decision final at Monday night’s City Council meeting.

“This correspondence serves as a formal recommendation to cancel the event for the 2012 calendar year and into the future,” says a letter jointly signed by City Administrator Todd Drysdale, Police Chief Daniel Grant, Fire Chief Michael MacDonald and Interim Superintendent of Recreation Timothy Beaker.

(To read the letter in its entirety, click the PDF tab to the right.)

has cost the city's Special Events Fund an average of $17,750 annually over the past three years, officials said.

The event also draws a large crowd, which sometimes creates public safety issues.

“The significant number of attendees makes the event difficult to control,” officials wrote in their letter to the mayor and City Council. “This has become more difficult due to the reduction in workforce that has occurred in the past 15 years and the cancellation of other local fireworks displays, which has made our event larger in attendance.”

When word that the fireworks could be coming to an end surfaced at a budget hearing in late July, Wyandotte Patch broke the news via Facebook.

Since that time, a number of readers have chimed in.

“I think they should look at something else (to cut),” Cary Shillair Bialy said. “That is a big money maker night for local businesses, family outing and memories.”

Denise Green already has an idea on how to save the fireworks.

“How many people live in Wyandotte?” she said. “Is everyone willing to chip in $1 per person in your household for the fireworks? I am! Could they put it as an option on our utility bill?"

Not everyone is against them coming to an end, however.

“I have no problem with that,” Judy Maiga Izzo said. “A lot of drunken people mixed in with the families having fun.”