Prescott Valley offering fireworks, Chino Valley reviving them

The Parks and Recreation Department in Prescott Valley will conduct the 18th annual Fourth of July festivities, while private groups in Chino Valley are reviving fireworks that have not dotted the skies since 2008.

Both events will feature games for children, beer gardens and live music and take place Thursday in public parks. Fireworks will go off at dusk at Mountain Valley Park in Prescott Valley and at 9 p.m. at Community Center Park in Chino Valley.

The fireworks display in Prescott Valley will be "the best doggone fireworks show in Northern Arizona," boasted Brian Witty, parks and recreation director for the town. "Our pyrotechnic individual hand-mixes the fireworks so we have custom colors, and produces items such as cloverleaves and smiley faces."

Festivities begin at Mountain Valley Park at 3 p.m. with the opening of the Freedom Station inflatable village. The beer garden will open at 5 p.m., and the band BitterSweet will take the main stage above the athletic field an hour later.

Admission and parking are free, but the use of the Freedom Station fun zone requires wristbands, available for sale at $8 in advance at Freedom Station and Parks and Recreation, and $10 during the day of the event.

Event organizers encourage participants to bring blankets but remind them that they will not allow alcohol, glass containers, enclosed tents, staked pop-up canopies/umbrellas and pets (excluding service dogs).

Parks and Recreation will allow small umbrellas and umbrella chairs on the grounds at the park, 8600 E. Nace Lane.

Fourth of July festivities will begin at noon and conclude around 10 p.m. Thursday at Community Center Park in Chino Valley, Perkinsville Road and Road 1 East.

The Chino Valley Recreational Foundation, Chino Valley Rotary Club and Word of Life Church have teamed up to revive a fireworks display that has been missing in Chino Valley since 2008.

"We had a community resident who would like to remain anonymous who came and asked me why we did not have a Fourth of July celebration," said Lon Turner, a Town Council member who chairs the foundation. The anonymous individual donated $10,000, which will pay for the fireworks display.

Chino Valley town government officials nixed Fourth of July festivities in 2009 because fundraising fell short of the goal of raising $8,500 for the display. Then-Mayor Karen Fann, now a Republican member of the state House of Representatives, challenged the community to raise the money.

The three organizations will fill the void this year.

"We will have food, drinks and the festivities," Turner said. "And the idea here is to get the community support to raise enough money to put this on year after year."

Activities will include games for children and a concert by blues band Road One South from 5 to 9 p.m.

Turner's group and the two other sponsors will also sell food with the goal of raising $10,000 for Fourth of July festivities in 2014, said Darryl Croft, a councilman and member of the Rotary.

They will serve hamburgers and hotdogs and perhaps barbecued food as well as put up a beer garden, Croft said. He added any money raised in excess of the $10,000 will go back to the three sponsors.

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As previously reported, area residents wishing to take part in Fourth of July festivities in Prescott may flock to Pioneer Park for activities beginning at noon and continuing until 10 p.m.

Admission to the festivities is free, but participants must pay for carnival rides and food. Pre-sale carnival wristbands are available for $12 at Prescott City Hall, the Grace Sparkes Activity Center, Fry's Food Markets and Freedom Station. Wristbands will cost $15 at the gate.

Pioneer Park is located at 1200 Commerce Drive.