Cities Too Poor to Mark the Fourth

The Fourth of July concert in this historic town, where the Pilgrims established New England’s first settlement, is being co-sponsored by the Japanese-owned Caw Corp. Other, less fortunate towns have simply called off their celebrations because of a lack of money.

Fiscal reality is overriding President Bush’s encouragement of special celebrations for the troops returning from the Gulf War.

“It’s a disgrace,” said William Madera, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Massachusetts. “The state is in such a financial mess, they’ve got to struggle just to throw the fireworks.”

Annapolis, Md., may have to divert unused snow removal funds to help pay for the city’s Independence Day because private donations are about $16,000 short of a $44,000 goal, Alderman John Hammond said.

Still, some cities will have no events at all.

“I don’t know of anything, with the budget restrictions,” said Hendryk Kenna, liaison to the mayor of cash-strapped Chelsea, Mass. “When you’re laying off firemen and policemen and things are falling down all around you, how are you going to justify spending money on good times?”

Just up the Massachusetts coast north of Boston, there will be no pyrotechnical display in struggling Revere for the first time in decades, said program director Bob McCarrick. “We had no choice,” McCarrick said. “Everything got cut.”

Even where funding has been found, parades will be quieter because many high schools long ago cut marching band programs.