(Shenandoah) -- Final preparations are underway for another Independence Day fireworks show in Shenandoah.
Huge crowds are expected in Sportsman's Park Saturday evening at around 9:30 for the annual fireworks extravaganza--the culmination of Star Spangled Shenandoah activities throughout the day. Shenandoah Police Chief Josh Gray and Bryston Dunkeson of the city's water department are coordinators of this year's program. Speaking on KMA's "Morning Line" program Thursday morning, Gray says he and Dunkeson stepped up after the "chief shooter," Charlie Spencer, asked for help.
"Charlie actually came to the city," said Gray, "and he was having a meeting with A.J. (Lyman) and Roger (McQueen). I just happened to be walking through City Hall to take bills from PD over to City Hall, and Charlie goes, 'this guy needs to be sitting at this table and be involved in this.' I go, 'involved in what?' And so, for that point on, I got put into helping with the fireworks stuff with the city. Bryston actually stepped up and said he would help me do it--so that was really nice of him."
Gray and Dunkeson attended a one-day training session in Hutchinson, Kansas to prepare for this year's display. The chief says there's more to launching fireworks than meets the eye.
"You think about shooting off fireworks," he said, "you think about just lighting something with a match or lighter or something, and a fuse goes off. This is completely all electronic. So, that was all new to me. They didn't spend a lot of time going over that stuff, which is huge right now, because Charlie Spencer is by our side the entire time this year showing us how to do that. I can't thank him enough for staying with us, helping us."
Gray estimates volunteers will spend 72 hours preparing for a show lasting approximately18-to-25 minutes Saturday night.
"From 1 o'clock yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon, until I think I left the ball field at around 5 o'clock," said Gray, "we started setting up all the tubes in the boxes out, and we had to get them all staked in, which is somewhere around 100 boxes. And there's usually five to 10 mortar shells in each box. It's a lot of work, a lot of sweat. A couple of the other guys from the water department stepped up and helped us, too. So, that's just part of it."
As always, Gray say the shooters are taking necessary safety precautions.
"This year, the biggest one we're going to shoot off is the five-inch (rocket)," he said. "Just for the five-inch, we have to have a thousand foot diameter in every direction from when we start to wire all those fireworks in, that nobody can be in that area, in that zone, because if something was to go wrong, one of those artillery shells could go off and cause damage."
Gray asks spectators coming into the park Saturday night to stay out of the roped area, and be courteous to others. He adds city ordinances forbid the public from shooting off their own fireworks in the park. You can hear the full interview with Josh Gray here:
