By Jerome Tharaud/Havre Daily News/jtharaud@havredailynews.com
With a week to go, plans for local Fourth of July events are solidifying.
The Havre Jaycees opened their annual fireworks booth Tuesday night, leading up to their public fireworks show at the Hill County Fairgrounds on July Fourth.
"We don't sell generics," said Cliff Plum, president of the Havre Jaycees. "We sell the good stuff."
Plum said all the proceeds from the booth - located in the Super 8 Motel parking lot on U.S. Highway 2 - support the following year's fireworks display.
Meanwhile, Charlie Grant, one of two local men working to organize a large Fourth of July celebration including a powwow and a go-cart track at the Holiday Village Shopping Center, said Thursday morning that liability insurance has finally come through.
Grant said he secured insurance for the events Wednesday, and that the premiums have been paid for by local businesses.
"My hope is that we're going to have a great turnout," Bruce Grant, a co-organizer of the events, said this morning.
Some of the events the organizers had originally hoped to hold at the fairgrounds have been canceled, and others have been moved to the Holiday Village Shopping Center.
The bull-riding rodeo will not be happening, Charlie Grant said.
The powwow will be held on vacant land east of the Holiday Village Shopping Center beginning at 2 p.m. on July Fourth, he said. He said seven Indian tribes have been invited, and that he expects members of all of them to show up, but that he does not know how many dancers will come. He said people from the tribes will meet to decide who will run the powwow once they arrive in Havre.
A go-cart track will be set up in the Holiday Village Shopping Center parking lot July 4-5. Inside the center will be an American Indian art show on those days as well. There will also be a style show at center court on July 5 at 5 p.m., sponsored by various local businesses, and Indian stick games in the community center.
Tiffany Korb, property manager at the Holiday Village Shopping Center, said Thursday morning that Bruce Grant and Charlie Grant have permission to set up their events in and around the center.
"We're excited to have an event on the Fourth of July," Korb said. "It's going to be a great community event."
Holiday Village also owns the property where the powwow will be held, she said.
Also on the Fourth will be a parade down Fifth Avenue at 10 a.m., and a community music festival in Pepin Park beginning at 11 a.m.
Bruce Grant and Charlie Grant, who are not related, received the permit for the parade from the Montana Department of Transportation last week.
Charlie Grant said groups that will participate in the parade include veterans and local political organizations.
He also said he is trying to organize a sound system for the parade.
City Council member Allen Woodwick said Thursday that seven bands - both rock and country - have confirmed they will participate in the music at Pepin Park, and more are likely to show up. Members of a local fiddle group have also said they would play, he said. Woodwick added that the stage will be open for anyone else who wants to play music during the day.
Woodwick said there will be concessions including hot dogs and hamburgers sold at the park. There will also be volleyball nets and horseshoes rented from the Park and Recreation Department. The event is expected to run until about 7 p.m., he said.
About 10 p.m. on Friday the Havre Jaycees will hold its annual fireworks display at the fairgrounds, which is separate from the events being put on by Bruce Grant and Charlie Grant.
The display will be smaller this year than last year but will feature some unique fireworks, said Jason Murri, the project chair of the Jaycees fireworks display.
"This year we've gone from quantity to quality," Murri said, adding that there will be some "really fancy stuff" at the display. That will include pattern shells and ring shells - fireworks that create a ring in the sky, sometimes with a picture in the middle - and a "pyrotechnic serpent" that creates what look like fish swimming in the sky, he said.
The fireworks booth will operate daily from about 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Plum said, and will open about 10 a.m. on weekends. It will remain open through the Fourth of July.
