Anyone for fireworks?
Local residents John Graff and Sage Sangiacomo (John of UDJ and Employers Council and Sage of City of Ukiah but both working in this case on their own steam) are getting together to try to have a Fourth of July fireworks show for 2008. The Ukiah Speedway folks tried it one last time this year and say they still lost money, so they won’t be doing it again. John says he and Sage are reaching out to local community groups to see how much interest is out there in keeping the tradition going and how best to have fireworks without anyone going broke. I suggested awhile back that perhaps the fireworks is really the only thing anyone's interested in and perhaps some money could be saved by eliminating the entertainment portion of the evening. I know lots of the entertainment played for free and that's a good thing but it still costs money to have sound systems, and to provide for having an audience. This year I was working late at the Daily Journal on July 4 and was on my way home just as the fireworks were going off. I thought to myself, well, maybe I'll just drive a little closer to the fairgrounds and see if I can see anything. I didn’t have to go far. I could see the fireworks clearly from anywhere on Perkins Street. So obviously, people don't need to pay admission to see the fireworks. And that's kind of great, I think, except that someone has to pick up the tab. If we scale the whole thing down to fireworks at the fairgrounds, that would save some money, but we're still talking probably about $15,000 for just that. Asking people to pay to see it at the fairgrounds won't collect enough. So why not make it a free, first come first served event at the fairgrounds and then let the rest of the community watch from the valley as they have been doing for years, At least there'll be a good audience at the fairgrounds. So, $15,000. We might be able to come up with some if it by putting donation cans all around town in stores. When you think about it, if every Ukiah resident gave one dollar, we'd have the whole amount. Anyway, now is the time to start thinking about it.
The Ukiah Valley Smart Growth Coalition is using an email marketing campaign system known as Constant Contact to send advisories to its members to keep up the chatter in the press against the idea of a retail mall at the old Masonite site. The latest message that went out advised people to send letters to the editor to the Daily Journal, the Press Democrat and the Willits News. They suggest people log on to their web site to get ideas on what to write. You could also call it 'smart growth,' How to grow your organization's impact and membership with a cheap and easy tech system which widens your reach and creates grass roots buzz,