NORTH VERNON — There will be fireworks at the Jennings County Fairgrounds on July 4th thanks to the efforts of local businesses.
“After the City had to cancel the fireworks planned for July 3, a group of our small business owners got together and have fixed this,” North Vernon Mayor Mike Ochs said.
The City of North Vernon was forced to cancel its annual fireworks show at the city park because of state COVID-19 safety guidelines still in effect through July 3rd.
“There just wasn’t room to accommodate social distancing and crowd sizes were still limited to under 250 so we had to cancel, Ochs said. “But Trent Wisner got the ball rolling and now we will have fireworks on the fourth and I hear they will even be bigger than usual.”
Wisner started contacting others to start a movement to save the community event.
With less than three weeks to organize efforts and raise enough donations to pay for the fireworks, Wisner formed a team of five members which also included Kyle Layman, Steve Gasper, Doug Gresham and Bryan Gresham.
“This was truly a team effort,” said Wisner, who described how members worked night and day to do things like arranging for permits, inspections, locate fireworks, locate enough toilet facilities and raise money in time.
“Raising money was slow at first but then our businesses got interested and it started going really fast. We could not have done this without our local business owners.”
All monies for the event were processed through the Jennings County Community Foundation.
The planning has gone beyond fireworks. Now there will be a whole free afternoon of entertainment and fun at the fairgrounds.
The Jennings County Fairgrounds will open to the public at 4 p.m. There will be no fee to attend, but there will be a free-will donation taken for parking. The money collected for parking will be donated to the Jennings County School Corporation.
People are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and blankets and observe social distancing.
There will be food trucks and vendors and live music during the event. The band Sounds of Summer will play at 8 p.m. and fireworks will begin around 10 p.m.
