What is the cost of the fireworks?
There are the hard costs of the event, and then the cost of raising money for the event. All told, we probably need to raise about $200,000. Do you use a paid solicitation service to raise money? No. We do it all with volunteers. The cost of mailings is a big part of it. Insurance. I guess you pay for police overtime. We pay a little bit of that, but we frankly don’t cover the cost, just as the Jazz & Blues Festival and those types of things contribute. And where do you stand budgetwise? We’re short at this point [late May]. I think we’re going to need $20,000 or more from the general public. And the way we’re going to get there — this is only my second year as chairman, and I don’t really have the fundraising history of the event, but people say, ‘Why don’t you just get a dollar from everybody who’s there?’ Sounds easy. It does sound easy. But we have a couple of restraints. One is philosophical: we don’t think we should charge. And the borough agrees, because they’re Green Acres park
