{"id":53413,"date":"2020-06-12T01:24:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T07:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-cancels-fourth-of-july-fireworks\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:04:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T10:04:21","slug":"cortez-cancels-fourth-of-july-fireworks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-cancels-fourth-of-july-fireworks\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez cancels Fourth of July fireworks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=94a37ecb-617e-45dc-97d5-ce1a1da8dafa&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1575\" alt=\"Cortez\u2019s Fourth of July fireworks show at Parque de Vida has been canceled this year.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Cortez\u2019s Fourth of July fireworks show at Parque de Vida has been canceled this year.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">The Journal file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>After some deliberation, the city of Cortez has canceled the annual Fourth of July fireworks celebration.<\/p>\n<p>City staff and the Cortez City Council agreed to cancel the show in light of the coronavirus pandemic and social-distancing measures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now, my concern is having large populations in the park,\u201d said City Manager John Dougherty during a virtual work session June 9. \u201cThey would be there all day. We don\u2019t have a lot of businesses open, so we\u2019d have a lot of people hanging around the park.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The fireworks show \u2014 shot off from Parque de Vida \u2014 has been a Fourth of July tradition for decades. It previously was operated by Keenan Ertel, but the Montezuma County commissioner decided to step down from the position <a href=\"https:\/\/the-journal.com\/articles\/144577-thousands-celebrate-independence-day-in-cortez\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But city staff and the county health department thought the show would be to difficult to operate safely, Dougherty said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate, another victim of COVID-19,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the hospital\u2019s not looking forward to any kind of large spikes at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The show also could strain the city\u2019s budget, since local businesses are unlikely to contribute substantial funding. Typically, the city\u2019s budget for the event is $3,500 (primarily for insurance costs). The Cortez Retail Enhancement Association had agreed to contribute $7,000, but Cortez still would an additional $5,000 for the show.<\/p>\n<p>Councilors agreed with city staff\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI used to be involved with setting it up and getting everything going, and by early morning there\u2019s people already in there, and it\u2019s bumper to bumper,\u201d Councilor Orly Lucero said.<\/p>\n<p>The City Council and staff noted too that since many other neighboring areas have canceled their Fourth of July festivities, a Cortez event could attract many visitors from all over the Four Corners region.<\/p>\n<p>Councilor Amy Huckins said that it was a sad but responsible choice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s all part of this whole package we\u2019re in right now,\u201d Huckins said.<\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_shirttail\"><a href=\"mailto:ealvero@the-journal.com\">ealvero@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>is \u2018another victim of COVID-19,\u2019 city manager says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,318,13,28,29,598],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-53413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-cortez-municipal-government","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-public-holiday"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88280,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53413\/revisions\/88280"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53413"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=53413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}