Oceanside Fireworks Show a Go : Holiday: Residents raise funds to hold annual Fourth of July display. Carlsbad drive falls short.

Oceanside residents have joined forces in a successful effort to put the zip and bang of fireworks back into the Fourth of July.

“We are getting tons of community support, and we are going to have fabulous fireworks this year,” said Jan Furlong, promotion director for Fisherman’s Restaurants.

The chain, which has a restaurant on the city pier, has led the drive to save the fireworks since city officials announced Oceanside did not have enough money in these tough economic times to sponsor the event.

A committee has signed the contracts with the fireworks company and Wednesday handed the city a check for $7,100 to pay for police protection.

Furlong said Friday that the community drive has already raised more than $16,000. But nearly $7,000 more is needed to cover the full cost including the fireworks show and an oceangoing barge needed as a launching platform.

Donations, Furlong said, can be mailed in care of Save Our Fireworks, P.O. Box 453, Oceanside 92054.

Meanwhile, a last-minute drive to save Carlsbad’s fireworks display fizzled.

Sand Bar Cafe manager Eric Ballner said a three-week effort raised several thousand dollars--not enough to meet the deadline set by the fireworks company that would have run the display.

“We were just limited in time,” Ballner said.

Restaurant owner Carlos Almendra said Friday that he would present the donations collected so far to the Carlsbad City Council on Tuesday and ask the city to keep the money in a fund to help pay for fireworks next year.

He said he would personally donate $2,000 this year to help out the Oceanside drive.

Ballner said he and many other residents had not thought about the fireworks because they believed the city would pay for the annual event. In Carlsbad, unlike Oceanside, a local committee of business people has raised the money for the past nine years but fell short this year.

Ballner said the restaurant is beginning immediately to help organize residents and business people to make sure the skies don’t stay dark next year.

“We’ve got to stop blaming the city for not coming up with the money and come up with the money ourselves,” he said.

The popular events in past years have drawn as many as 100,000 people to the beaches in Oceanside and 40,000 to Carlsbad.

Ballner said his main concern was the disappointed children. “I couldn’t see my dad telling me as a kid that there are no fireworks because we can’t afford it.

“The way things are for kids nowadays is tough enough, and you start taking away little, simple things like this . . . it just makes it worse,” he said.