|
||||
|
Jan. 3, 2001
By Janelle Holden A city tradition was canceled this New Year’s to save money for a New Year’s Eve celebration in 2004. For the past seven years, the city of Cortez has put on a New Year’s Eve celebration complete with fireworks, live music, bonfires, free pizza, and hot drinks in Centennial Park. But the event was canceled this year and will be canceled next year as well because the parks and recreation department wants to save money for a bigger and better party at the new recreation center. "We’re saving our money this year and next year so that when we have the rec center we’ll have a nice warm place to have a big party and shoot the fireworks," said parks and recreation director Chris Burkett. City voters passed an $8.9 million bond issue in November to build a 43,000-square-foot center in Parque de Vida. Burkett said waning attendance was a factor in the decision. "Last year we might have had 50 people that came for the music," explained Burkett. "We’re getting more people that would show up and park their cars and watch the fireworks for about 10 minutes, but it was hard to justify spending $1,500 just to let people watch fireworks for five minutes and drive home." Temperatures have dropped every year, said Burkett, and few people have wanted to brave the weather in the park. "It was colder this year going into it than it was last year even, and with a little bit of snow, we thought, ‘Let’s save the money rather than spending the $1,500.’ We just thought we could better serve the community that way." |
||||
|
Copyright © 2001 the Cortez
Journal. All rights reserved. |
