The cash totals are in from the weekend collections – we are still $1,267.25 from our target

All the cash is counted - we are still $1,267.25 from our target.

As a reminder here are the details of what we are now expected to pay (please see our prior blog post where our costs rose):

Fireworks Show 2014		$11,925.00
Police Overtime		$9,004.00
Fire Department / Overtime		$2,400.00
Port-o-lets		$200.00
Fire Marshall		$950.00
Board of Ed		$480.00
R Band and Sound (cancelled)		$0.00
2014 Total Show expense		$24,959.00
Current cash		$23,691.75
To estimated show target		($1,267.25)
Original 2014 Goal		$30,000.00
To 2014 Campaign Goal		($6,308.25)

 

We are not going to make our 2014 campaign goals (which would have allowed us to save the R Band performance as we did last year) and we need another $1,267.25 to simply restore the show.

The clock is ticking.

You can donate by mail; make checks out to: “Wallingford Fireworks Fund” and send to:

Wallingford Fireworks Fund
c/o Jason Zandri
35 Lincoln Drive EXT
Wallingford, CT 06492

The main issue now with getting checks via mail is their clearing in time to present a check to the town by the deadline date.

We also accept donations by PayPal

Every dollar helps us reach that goal – we are only going to get there with your help.

We will be at the REGULAR TOWN COUNCIL MEETING on TUESDAY May 27, 2014 to report out to the Town Council – if you have the time to make the meeting please consider coming down.

Thank you for all your support to date – a little more gets us over the line with effectively no time to spare.

We have successfully done this in each of the prior four years (since 2010) – I know we can do this again.

WORKSTAGE CONNECTICUT LLC DONATION is in; additional pledges made - $4,700 remains to be raised

In our most recent post "The Fund has been set back an additional $1,459.00 - we are now back to needing just about $7,000.00 again" we have outlined expanded costs being brought to bear by The Fund; namely more man hours being forced upon us as "required" by the town in the form of Fire and Police services for the show - where the Police Department overtime has gone up 12.5 percent and the fire department overtime has gone up 20 percent (and not from salary increases but rather more man hours being brought to bear for the work that needs to be done).

While those details still hold we have some new updates to pass along.

First and foremost I want to acknowledge Workstage, Gale Development and Campus at Greenhill for their $10,000 donation that cleared to our account today – that makes the totals mark as listed (as we were counting their pledge in).

Additionally I want to thank the businesses and individuals that stepped up today to make donations online. All of those additional donations have gapped us to the point where we are now “just” $4,700 short our new goal of $24,959.

On Saturday May 24^th we are going to be collecting at the Dunkin Donuts in Yalesville from 6AM to about 1PM (Wayne will be there most of that time); we will also be at the Landfill. I am trying to line up a volunteer for the Recycling Center as well but we are short a couple people this weekend.

 
We can gap $4,700. I think we can gap it before the end of the day tomorrow and certainly before the weekend is over.

Starting at 5PM today – Friday May 23^rd until 11:59PM on Monday May 26^th (Memorial Day) I will match every donation made up to $2,500.

Donate via Paypal and I’ll match the donation

Donate at our collection points on Saturday and we’ll count it up and I'll match that too.

Let’s roll Wallingford, let's roll and get this done.

The Fund has been set back an additional $1,459.00 - we are now back to needing just about $7,000.00 again

We've had a set back today. A discussion with Jim Bowes yesterday and the Mayor's office today has revealed to us a much higher than expected costs for the town services from the Police and Fire Departments.

We will be at the REGULAR TOWN COUNCIL MEETING on TUESDAY May 27, 2014 to report out to the Town Council – if you have the time to make the meeting please consider coming down; I will be discussing this new development there.

Prior - these were the costs for the event that we were working from:

Fireworks Show 2014		$11,925.00
Police Overtime		$8,000.00
Fire Department / Overtime		$2,000.00
Port-o-lets		$200.00
Fire Marshall		$950.00
Public Works		$0.00
Board of Ed		$425.00
R Band and Sound		$0.00
2014 Total Show expense		$23,500.00
To estimated show target		($5,378.00)
Current cash (and Campus pledge - not yet received)		$18,122.00

We received updated information from the Police and Fire Departments regarding man hours and costs and they have increased DRAMATICALLY over 2013:

Fireworks Show 2014		$11,925.00
Police Overtime		$9,004.00
Fire Department / Overtime		$2,400.00
Port-o-lets		$200.00
Fire Marshall		$950.00
Public Works		$0.00
Board of Ed		$480.00
R Band and Sound		$0.00
2014 Total Show expense		$24,959.00
To estimated show target		($6,837.00)
Current cash (and Campus pledge - not yet received)		$18,122.00

So that’s the update right now.

Between now and the deadline I will post regular updates.

I personally think it is ridiculous the radical change in the costs to the overtime we are being forced to pay but it's pretty much dictated to us as a "must have" requirement.

The costs for the Police Department overtime have gone up 12.5 percent and the fire department overtime has gone up 20 percent. These increases are NOT salary driven (all salaries went up less than 3 percent) and are CLEARLY more man hours being forced upon us as "required" by the town.

This can still be done. We've been pushing a bolder up the hill for three months and it has slipped.

We have eight more days and we're going to keep pushing.

You can donate by mail; make checks out to: “Wallingford Fireworks Fund” and send to:

Wallingford Fireworks Fund
c/o Jason Zandri35 Lincoln Drive EXT
Wallingford, CT 06492

9 Days remain - $5,400.00 more to raise

A few more checks arrived and a couple of hand delivered donations came in as well so with that we gained on the total show expense of $23,500.00 – we now sit at needing $5,400.00 more to cut a check to the town of Wallingford for the show.

The R Band performance has been deleted from our costs in order to reduce the overall expenditure; if we somehow manage to collect an additional $3,700.00 for their cost, the cost of the sound system and the set up, as well as the associated overtime costs for Public Works we CAN restore the performance but with only 9 days remaining that is not likely.

We will be at the REGULAR TOWN COUNCIL MEETING on TUESDAY May 27, 2014 to report out to the Town Council – if you have the time to make the meeting please consider coming down.

Presently here is the cost line up:

Fireworks Show 2014		$11,925.00
Police Overtime		$8,000.00
Fire Department / Overtime		$2,000.00
Port-o-lets		$200.00
Fire Marshall		$950.00
Public Works		$0.00
Board of Ed		$425.00
R Band and Sound		$0.00
2014 Total Show expense		$23,500.00
To estimated show target		($5,378.00)
Current cash (and Campus pledge - not yet received)		$18,122.00

So that’s the update right now.

Between now and the deadline I will post regular updates.

In the meantime – if you’ve already supported us, thank you. If you have another few dollars to send in now is the time. The money CAN be raised in the remaining time if people are willing to donate.

It’s 54 more $100.00 donations. Or 108 $50.00 donations. $20.00 more from 270 of you closes that gap.

10,000 people are estimated to be at the show - $1.00 a piece does it.

You can donate by mail; make checks out to: “Wallingford Fireworks Fund” and send to:

Wallingford Fireworks Fund
c/o Jason Zandri,
35 Lincoln Drive EXT
Wallingford, CT 06492

We also accept donations by PayPal:

 

Let’s roll Wallingford, let’s roll.

VIDEO – The Wallingford Fireworks Fund makes the donation to the Town of Wallingford

Below is the video clip from the May 25th Town Council meeting where Steve Murray, Wayne Montefusco, and myself made the donation to the Town of Wallingford for the Campus at Greenhill 2013 Wallingford Fireworks Celebration.

The money collected and donated not only covered the cost for the Independence Day Fireworks celebration (including all the costs for the town services and overtime) but it also covered the costs to have the R Band perform. Those costs are the fees for the band itself along with the additional overtime for Public Works and use of the ShowMobile and the sound system rental and setup.

This is incredibly important to note; the Fund has never been able to save the R Band performance before. The performance in 2012 was made possible by funds remaining in the Park and Recreation budget the the Council restored for that use; prior to that the last time they performed was the last time the event was paid for by the town which was 2009.

That was all made possible by you Wallingford. Pat yourselves on the back and keep up to date on the blog for any other updates between now and the Independence Day Fireworks celebration (just 34 days away at the time of this post on June 2, 2013).

TONIGHT - (May 28, 2013) The Fund will be presenting the donation for the 2013 event to Wallingford at the Town Council meeting

Tonight at the regularly scheduled Town Council meeting I will be asking to waive Rule 5 in order to present to the town (on behalf of The Fund) the donation for the 2013 Independence Day celebration which includes all the costs for the event (the fireworks, the town services, overtime for police and fire, etc.) as well as all the costs for the R Band performance which we were also able to save.

The meeting starts at 6:30 and I am expecting to be able to waive Rule 5 fairly early if you wanted to stop by and just see the Town Council vote on accepting the donation.

Thank you again Wallingford for helping us to get it done.

Follow up from the Town Council meeting regarding the Fireworks Fund

Can't say I was surprised at the outcome; it was pretty much as I expected but I was certainly going to try.

For additional details that I do not outline below you can read the story in the Record Journal - Councilors want say on fireworks, but they’ll have to meet with mayor

Mayor Dickinson made the commentary during the discussion – “I am not sure what you were told” regarding my question about the amount of time needed to schedule the overtime manpower and that was why I asked the department heads there – so I could ask these questions of them in front of the Mayor so that there was no misunderstanding and I assure you there wasn’t.

I ended up needing to call them prior to the Council meeting to question them on the phone; I did request them at the meeting but given the schedules they are under this week with budget hearings the remainder of the week they requested to handle matters over the phone if possible and I agreed in the interest of simplicity and trying not to add burden to them. If that works against me, and the facts somehow become distorted, I’ll never let it happen again

Fool me once… 

I asked each department head – Police Chief Dortenzio,  Fire Chief Struble and Director of Public Works Henry McCully how much lead time they needed to arrange all their manpower for the fireworks event and each one said the earliest the process begins is two weeks out from the event. I asked the same question multiple times in multiple ways and responded to answers with clarifying comments so I know there were no misunderstandings.

I will go back to the Mayor about that and ask that we get a deadline extension for the money to be delivered to the town to Monday June 11th - that's 27 days before the event which gives The Fund an additional 16 days to collect money and get the funds to the town.

The departments indicated that the manpower effort takes no more than 14 days – this basically gives them twice that lead time (short one day).

I’ll let you know how I make out. I’m sure it is going to be somewhere along the lines of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.

I’d like to be wrong about that because when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object it usually means there is an “endless transfer of energy” that is otherwise wasted and should be put to better use.

Regarding the vendor selection – it’s been made; I am going to call Park and Rec today to confirm and to ask why the Hamden vendor wasn’t chosen and why we went with the New Hampshire one but since the Fund has no say there’s little more I can do short of holding the funds for the show hostage to “get our way” which I will not do.

It’s not the Fund’s money it’s the peoples’ money and they want a show and I will make sure their donations are well represented at the event.

We’ll make the 2012 show worthy of all these pre-show fireworks in the political arena and top it off with a 4th of July celebration that is the best Wallingford has ever seen. (Cross your fingers for no rain).

REMINDER - Town Council item regarding the Wallingford Fireworks Fund THIS Tuesday April 10 at 6:30PM (meeting start time).

The item is #6 on a very short agenda: 

Discussion and Possible Action to establish and adopt a formal process for the selection of a vendor for the Wallingford Fireworks Celebration - Councilor Jason Zandri 

If you can make the meeting in support of the Fund and the Wallingford Fireworks it would be greatly appreciated.

The full agenda can be found via http://jasonzandri.blogspot.com/2012/04/agenda-town-of-wallingford-connecticut_09.html 

The meeting starts at 6:30PM on Tuesday April 10 and I would presume it would not go past 8:30 (I actually expect the whole meeting to go no longer than that.)

Again – if you can come in support and bring a few people with you that would be great; they don’t have to speak or anything (or if they want to they can) but just a few at the meeting is a world of good help as it shows a base of support.

Thank you.

Town Council item regarding the Wallingford Fireworks Fund THIS Tuesday April 10 at 6:30PM (meeting start time).

The item is #6 on a very short agenda:

Discussion and Possible Action to establish and adopt a formal process for the selection of a vendor for the Wallingford Fireworks Celebration - Councilor Jason Zandri

If you can make the meeting in support of the Fund and the Wallingford Fireworks it would be greatly appreciated.

The full agenda can be found via http://jasonzandri.blogspot.com/2012/04/agenda-town-of-wallingford-connecticut_09.html

The meeting starts at 6:30PM on Tuesday April 10 and I would presume it would not go past 8:30 (I actually expect the whole meeting to go no longer than that.)

Again – if you can come in support and bring a few people with you that would be great; they don’t have to speak or anything (or if they want to they can) but just a few at the meeting is a world of good help as it shows a base of support.

Thank you.