Debate regarding Cedar Key`s traditional July 4th fireworks bookended the City Commission meeting Tuesday night, February 22. In the end, the commission voted 3-1 to hold the 2011 celebration on July 4, a Monday night, and to stage the fireworks display at Cemetery Point. Discussion of the 2011 observance was scheduled to conclude Tuesday night`s 17-item agenda but, taking advantage of the public comment section of the agenda, citizen Dale Register spoke from the floor in opposition to the Piney Point location used for last year`s fireworks display, before leaving for the regularly-scheduled monthly meeting of the Lions Club.
Register pointed out that had the City Commission not moved its February meeting from its usual third Tuesday slot to the fourth Tuesday, he would have been able to stay for the entire City Commission meeting, as is his wont, and to participate in what he termed "the fireworks fireworks" during that agenda item`s regularly-scheduled time slot.
In his remarks, Dale Register recalled his opposition last year to the choice of Piney Point as the fireworks site. There is no city-owned site on Piney Point from which to stage the fireworks display. Not only did last year`s use of private property increase the city`s insurance expense, Register noted, but the city lost its sovereign immunity (protection from liability) by operating the fireworks display on private property. Fifteen agenda items later, Commissioner Dennison, on record as preferring that the Piney Point site be used again for the 2011 display, rebutted Register`s sovereign immunity argument against the site, noting other ways in which a city can lose sovereign immunity protection. Commissioner Dennison stated that his preference represented citizen comment he`d received. Commissioner Sue Colson cited citizen comment she`d received in favor of Cemetery Point, the only alternate site considered for July 4, 2011. The city`s fireworks display is undertaken by members of Cedar Key`s volunteer fire department, under Fire Chief Robert Robinson`s direction. When queried by the commissioners, Chief Robinson stated that either the Piney Point or the Cemetery Point location met his requirements. In response to a concern raised from the floor by citizen Bob Trout, Police Chief Virgil Sandlin stated that the police department would be able to handle any viewer congestion along State Road 24 that might result from the Cemetery Point option. In the end, sovereign immunity seemed not to be the issue. City Attorney Holly Blumenthal clarified that the city`s increased exposure to liability at the Piney Point site was due to an indemnification commitment required by the private property owner. For many years, the city staged its fireworks display at the City Park beach, convenient for viewers in the park and in Dock Street establishments. When it became clear that the City Park site couldn`t meet the State of Florida`s set-back requirements for firework detonation, the display was moved to the sandspit on Goose Cove. The sandspit location allowed the city to meet state requirements, but crowding conditions on private property adjacent to G Street created other public safety issues and the city moved the fireworks to the uninhabited island of Atsena Otie. The Atsena Otie site was a popular solution. However, when Atsena Otie fell under U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Management, laws banning the detonation of fireworks on federal property came into effect and the city failed in its efforts to have that prohibition lifted. | 