First published in the Feb. 26, 2022, print issue of the Glendale News-Press.
The City Council next week expects to revisit continuing to fund its downtown Fourth of July fireworks show, which it curated last year as a way to welcome what officials believed would be the waning of the coronavirus pandemic.
In addition to the question of continuing this show, the council may decide whether to also continue funding the Crescenta Valley Fireworks Association for its annual show, which has lit up La Crescenta’s skies for the past 14 years, save for 2020. The options are not mutually exclusive, and the council can fund both or one of either — or indeed, none at all.
The city believes that it can put on a repeat of last year’s Jewel City Sparkles Fireworks, which were launched downtown from one of the city’s parking decks, with a $36,000 budget, around $4,000 cheaper from 2021’s show. The city also believes it would be a better show — last year’s vendor, which was secured on fairly short notice, apparently experienced “delivery and quality issues” for the show, resulting in a shorter, lackluster display. (The city successfully recouped $9,500 from the vendor as a result.)
Additionally, the Glendale Police Department’s staffing costs came in lower than expected last year, the city said.
As with last year’s show, Caruso, owner of the Americana at Brand, plans to kick in $10,000 to pay for downtown Glendale’s fireworks show. Assuming the council moves forward with it this year, it would likely commit leftover funding from last year’s show to close the gap.
In past years, the city has typically contributed $5,000 to the Crescenta Valley show, although it donated $7,500 once, in 2019. After initially planning to hold back on last year’s donation, in order to help pay for the downtown show, the city ultimately contributed $5,000 to the local organization.
In other business, the council expects to launch a bidding process to help improve the citywide tree canopy saturation. Part of that item also includes adopting a new canopy goal of 25% coverage by trees, which offers greater relief from heat waves as well as ecological benefits.
The council also may further dive into the Grayson Repowering Project, which it narrowly approved last week.
Though the project purports to significantly reduce the longtime power plant’s natural gas usage, activists have called for eliminating regular gas usage altogether, and councilmembers expressed a desire to continue exploring cleaner energy options while not creating costly delays for the endeavor.
The meeting begins at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
