City Councilman Sam Macrane wanted to make sure that when Naperville residents saw their 4th of July fireworks this year, they wouldn’t be disappointed.
The annual Independence Day display has been a point of pride in Naperville since the city started choreographing the fireworks to music in 1981.
In recent years, the City Council, Park District and the private Exchange Club have spent $20,000 annually for the pyrotechnics. But after seeing the $36,000, privately financed show last New Year’s Eve, an impressed Macrane suggested upping the ante for July 4.
The City Council agreed to pitch in an additional $2,500. But Park District commissioners said they couldn’t afford to do likewise.
After hearing about Macrane’s idea from a newspaper story, local businesswoman Camille Oliver-Hoffmann decided she could. Oliver-Hoffmann, the president of the development company bearing her name, donated $7,500.
The New Year’s display “was really breathtaking and awe-inspiring. It makes you very proud of Naperville,” she said. “We decided: `Let’s keep Naperville number one.'”
The extra $10,000 will allow a slightly longer and considerably more sparkling show with more shells and more eye-catching ones, said Gary Foiles, the Park District’s self-described “fireworks guy.”
The fireworks will start at 9:30 p.m. July 4 at Knoch Park, at West Street and Martin Avenue. Spectators are encouraged to bring radios to tune into the soundtrack on WKKD-FM 95.9. This year, it traces music through the 20th Century.
The rain date is July 5.
