Fireworks will still fill the skies and food will still be plentiful at Carthage’s Municipal Park and the Carthage Golf Course on Saturday, barring rain or lightning.
The National Weather Service in Springfield is forecasting a 40 percent chance of thunderstorms on Saturday.
Parks and Recreation Director Alan Bull said if weather forces the cancellation of the fireworks display on Saturday, the event would be moved to Sunday.
“That’s always been the contingency plan, if it rains on the Fourth, move it to the next day,” Bull said.
The city is paying $15,000 to A&M Pyrotechnics to fill the sky over the park with colorful displays. That’s the same amount the city has paid for at least the past three years.
“The show itself is still going to be big,” Bull said. “We haven’t cut back on the fireworks display itself. There will be food and we’ll have portable toilets at the park.”
Bull said golf course officials would clear the course of golfers at about noon and spend the afternoon clearing the course of holes and markers and other items.
He said people could start gathering on the course sometime after 5 p.m.
Nellie Holzwarth, secretary of the Carthage Lions Club, said 15 volunteers would staff a food booth in what she called the group’s largest fundraiser of the year.
“We use the money to buy Seeing Eye dogs for the blind and eyeglasses for school children who can’t afford them,” Holzwarth said. “Last year we bought eyeglasses for 23 children in the Carthage school district.
“This is our main fundraiser. We have four fundraisers all year but this five or six hours makes a big difference in what we can do.”
Holzwarth said the booth would sell hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, snow cones and drinks. It will be set up near an old maintenance shed and the main parking lot on the east side of the golf course.
Bull said the police and fire department would be on the golf course to try to limit the amount of fireworks set off on the golf course.
The sale of fireworks in Carthage is legal for the first time in years, but its still illegal to set off fireworks in the city, including on the Carthage Golf Course on July 4.
“We want people to come out and enjoy themselves,” Bull said. “Please don’t tear stuff up though.”
