SAN CLEMENTE : City Seeking Private July 4 Show Sponsor

The city’s annual Fourth of July celebration will be canceled by the City Council on April 15 unless a source can be found to pay for the popular event.

The council indicated at a budget workshop last week that it will not allocate city money for the celebration, which has been a tradition for nearly 40 years and would cost about $30,000 for security and fireworks.

City Manager Michael W. Parness said Wednesday that letters have been sent to organizations including the Chamber of Commerce, Pier Bowl Merchants Assn. and the Downtown Merchants Assn. telling them about the council’s plan to cancel the program.

“The council has deferred making a final decision until we can find out if we can make financial support available,” Parness said. “We hope that a business-oriented group will step forward before April 15, but we’ve had no response as of yet.”

Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Mimi Collier said that her group has not yet met to discuss the possibility of helping to pay for the event and that the chamber does not believe that canceling the event would have a negative impact on tourist dollars during the holiday.

“I think San Clemente has such a unique atmosphere that the tourists will still come down,” Collier said. “After all, it’s a beach day.”

The council first discussed the possibility of canceling the event in February but voted to proceed because members said eliminating it would probably cost the city more in lost tourist revenue than it would spend to put the show on.

But the council noted that the decision was tentative and that the full cost had not yet been investigated. Fireworks cost about $8,000; the other $22,000 is for security.

Mayor Joseph Anderson said the council cannot justify spending that much on “a nice amenity” during a year when the city faces such financial burdens.

“We’d all like to do it,” he said. “It’s a nice thing that’s good to have for the community. It’s patriotic. But it’s going to be very difficult for the city to be able to pay for these kinds of activities in the future.

“It’s getting tougher, and different funding sources are going to have to be found.”