Key Points
- Wilton selectmen approved an $18,000 contract for Sept. 5 fireworks, despite learning the event would require roughly another $16,000 in town personnel overtime costs.
- The lack of a finalized funding plan renewed concerns about Town Hall financial process, with Selectman Rich McCarty casting the lone vote against the contract and other members also questioning how the costs would be covered.
- Whether to charge for parking again became part of the debate: officials discussed honoring passes already purchased for July 4 while potentially charging first-time attendees and using other sources to cover any remaining shortfall.
Why It Matters: The fireworks debate raises a broader question for Wilton officials: how and when the town should commit to new spending when the total costs are known but the funding plan has not yet been finalized.
Questions about how to fund Wilton’s rescheduled fireworks display sparked yet another Board of Selectmen discussion about financial process, procedure and planning at Town Hall.
At a special meeting of the BOS held early Friday morning, Aug. 7, members voted to approve First Selectman Toni Boucher signing an $18,000 contract with New Hampshire-based fireworks company Pyrotecnico in order to get the state permit approval process underway in time for a rescheduled fireworks show on Saturday, Sept. 5.
However, BOS members also learned Friday that the event would require roughly $16,000 in additional town personnel overtime costs, without a finalized plan for how those costs would be funded.
Citing what he and other members saw as an absence of detailed information regarding how to finance the event, Selectman Rich McCarty cast the lone vote against approval of the contract, leaving the vote to pass 4-1.
“My vote is going to be more around what I’ve talked about at many of our Board of Selectmen meetings in the year that I’ve been on, which is that we need to have better processes around finances,” McCarty said. “My vote is going to be a reflection — not that I don’t want to have the fireworks — but that we need to start enforcing the discipline across departments and events in town that enforces a financial discipline of what we’re considering.”
Boucher told McCarty it was a point well taken, but countered that there were sometimes “unanticipated situations” that demanded action, and that was part of why the town had the Charter Authority fund in place.
“I don’t think this is going outside the proper process,” Boucher said. “It’s just that, again, something happened that no one anticipated.”
This year’s Fourth of July fireworks celebration was rained out. With the country celebrating its 250th anniversary, officials then suggested holding a fireworks show on Labor Day weekend.
We need to start enforcing the discipline across departments and events in town that enforces a financial discipline of what we’re considering.”
Selectman Rich Mccarty
Parks and Recreation Department Director Steve Pierce has worked to organize the new show on a tighter timeline than the usual fireworks event. He told the BOS that along with the $18,000 fireworks cost — which he said is a discount from the standard $25,000 cost of the original July 4 show — the town would also need to cover personnel overtime costs, including $7,200 for the Police Department, $6,200 for the Fire Department, $2,000 for Parks & Rec, and $648 for the Department of Public Works.
“Putting this event together is no small task for any of the departments,” Pierce said, explaining that much of his department’s typical part-time staff are college students who will be returning to school before Labor Day and thus unavailable for the new date.
While Pierce said he would figure out how to absorb his department’s $2,000 overtime cost in the Parks & Rec budget, it was unclear from where the other $14,048 would be allocated.
Financial Process Draws Concern
“I’m concerned about managing the cost. It’s almost $35,000,” McCarty said, adding that there could be contingency above that.
“I’m just concerned that we’re going out and trying to find money for this when we have other needs that pop up, that I’ll say are more than entertainment, that are very much infrastructure. So that’s a very real concern.”
Though he voted in favor of the contract, Selectman Matt Raimondi echoed some of McCarty’s concerns.
“I’m in favor of this … It’s a good amenity,” Raimondi said. “I am concerned that we’re making an increase to the budget without a concrete source of funds to pay for it.”
“This is a really good thing to do, but I also think we should just know how we’re going to pay for this,” he said.
Because the selectmen had discussed moving forward with the rescheduled fireworks during their July 20 meeting, the BOS members told Boucher they felt she had been given enough time to prepare supporting details for their consideration on both costs and plans for funding. Boucher, however, said there were still moving parts, including how much was left over from what had been collected through parking fees at the July 4th event.
She said that the town could potentially pull the money from Charter Authority if necessary, or suggested that it could seek charitable contributions from residents.
“It sounds like we have some good ideas to how we can fund it, but it isn’t buttoned up,” Selectman David Tatkow observed.
Boucher noted that, going forward, Wilton should be charging more than the current $35 fee for parking at the annual fireworks event to bring it more in line with what surrounding towns charge.
Pierce said that the town collected $36,000 last year in fireworks parking revenue, which he said rolls into a specific fireworks account to cover the next year’s event rather than the town’s General Fund.
Charge Again — or Find Another Way to Pay?
How to handle parking fees for the rescheduled event — and whether attendees who paid on July 4 should be charged again — also became part of the funding discussion.
Pierce said people who had purchased a $35 parking pass for the original July 4 event could have their passes reissued and honored on Sept. 5. Raimondi agreed, but distinguished between those residents and people attending for the first time.
“I think people shouldn’t pay for this. I want to be clear. I meant that people have already paid. We shouldn’t be charging people twice,” Raimondi said. But making the event entirely free, he added, could draw a larger crowd and exacerbate the staffing and parking issues Pierce had outlined.
Boucher suggested charging people who had not already purchased a pass and seeking donations to cover any remaining shortfall. But she emphasized that those details could be worked out at a later time, after the immediate decision on approving the contract.
“It’s about where the funds are coming from,” Boucher said. “If you guys are certain we want to move forward, then we have to get this contract signed, and then afterwards we are going to have to find funding sources.”
Pierce also told the BOS that the special meeting was specifically aimed at getting the contract signed so Pyrotecnico could begin the state permitting process, which must be initiated at least 15 days before the event.
“We’re working diligently with police, fire, EMS,” he said, noting that the Freedom Run Road Race will also be taking place on the morning of the event.
“That financially is completely separate from the fireworks,” Pierce said. “It’s a self-sustaining program.”
