Businesses report brisk July 4 weekend

By TRIP BURNS

Lake County Leader

Tourists and residents descended into downtown Polson over the weekend for a variety of 4th of July festivities, including a parade, outdoor concerts, and the fireworks display Saturday night. 

According to city officials, everything was a big success and the only problem the city encountered was one or more vandals destroying a public toilet with fireworks. Even a local restaurant ran out of food on Monday morning due to the crowds over the weekend. Another problem was a slight malfunction with the fireworks toward the end of the show.

City spokeswoman Karen Sargeant spoke at the city commissioner’s meeting on Tuesday night, both as acting city manager in Mark Shrives’ place, and as her role as head of the Parks and Recreation department. She told the city commissioners that the festivities were a huge success and that she has received many compliments and comments affirming the good time over the weekend.

Many citizens and residents expressed how well the 4th of July parade was, and what it meant to the community.

“I say ‘citizens and residents’ because the citizens knew my name,” she said. “The rest were visitors because they didn’t know my name.”

Sargeant praised the police department, the Chamber of Commerce, and the parks department in a collaborative effort, also mentioning thanks to Anderson Radio Broadcasting for reminding people to stay behind the yellow ropes along Main Street.

A big deal at the parade was not having anyone to throw candy from the moving cars or floats. Several times it was announced that at no time should anyone be throwing candy.

“It was noted two people who we’ll ask not to come back next year for that reason,” she said. “Most everybody else totally shut down throwing candy or got out and started handing out candy to the kids.”

Next year there might be different or stricter rules. “We’ll tweak it more next year,” she said.

As for the fireworks display, it almost didn’t happen. On Thursday, the Lake County commissioners ordered an emergency ban on all fireworks. Sargeant met with several agencies including the Polson fire departments and Tribal fire departments, at 11 o’clock on Friday night to discuss the provisions and work out a solution to displaying the fireworks. The chamber of commerce had raised $10,000 for the fireworks show.

Another factor city officials watched was the weather and to make sure the dry conditions wouldn’t pose a danger to the area.

Polson was under a “red flag” warning from 6 to 9 p.m. on Saturday night.

“It was very diligently being watched,” she said. “I was getting weather reports. We weren’t sure until after nine.”

The fire departments spread their engines around the fireworks launch area and around the shorelines to be ready for any emergency that might occur.

The fireworks lasted for about 20 minutes and ended without a grand finale because, according to the fire department, 15 firework canisters did not ignite, causing some confusion among the city workers and spectators.

“It happens,” Sargeant said. “You get the tiniest bit of moisture and it can stop the electrical current. There are a lot of factors that go into it. But everybody enjoyed the show.”

The only crime committed over the weekend during the fireworks was the destruction of a public toilet at Riverside park, Sargeant said.

“Some individual – who we don’t know – dropped a firecracker into one of the new toilets,” she said. The volume of crowds also affected a local restaurant in town. Pop’s Grill on Main Street in Polson ran out of food on Monday morning due the huge surge in business. Bob Gromoll, the owner of Pop’s, said people cleaned him out of all of his eggs by 11 Monday morning.

“This weekend was fantastic,” he said. “A big thanks to the city and people for all their support.”