COVINGTON, Ga. – The Covington city council discussed the downtown Fourth of July celebration at their work session on Monday, marking the second work session council has discussed this topic.
According to mayor Fleeta Baggett, the current decision is to have the festivities downtown, and the fireworks moved to a location that has yet to be determined. This came after the council agreed to a consensus, though not an official vote.
“As of three minutes ago, we’re gonna do the usual everything downtown that we normally do for [the] Fourth of July,” Baggett said. “It’ll be the same type things during the day and then the fireworks will be at night at a different location. And that different location is yet to be determined.”
Baggett said that it is not as much about the problems that they have had, as it is about the number of people that show up to the event.
Data presented by city manager Tres Thomas showed that at 6 p.m there were 7,200 people that attended this year’s July 4 festivities. It grew every hour until 9 p.m with 16,600 people in the downtown area.
“We cannot safely look after the number of people,” Baggett said.
However, this was not a unanimous consensus, with council member Travis Moore holding his previous stance of keeping the event on the Square. In a statement sent to The Covington News, Moore cited data from merchants as well as an online Facebook poll from The News that supported his stance.
“The surveys from both the merchants and [The]Covington News strongly supported keeping the event on the Square with increased security,” Moore said..
Baggett also released a statement to The News which can be found here.
Police chief Philip Bradford said that the biggest problem the Covington Police Department (CPD) is trying to figure out is the event not getting overpopulated like it has in the past. However, the police department has not yet figured out a way to prevent it.
One idea that was presented in the last work session was the idea of barricading the Square and running a wristband system. But, according to Bradford, they could receive some resistance for that system.
When discussing safety, Georgia state laws about eligibility to conceal carry with a permit if you are 21+ and the ability to have fireworks if you are 18+ prohibits the police and council from controlling certain situations.
By moving the fireworks, the police hope it spreads people out around town, allowing less crowding through the downtown Square. The police also hope that fireworks not getting shot from downtown, will stop delinquent behavior.
The council also discussed the Lighting of the Square event that takes place each November.
Baggett mentioned that the city plans to continue the event as normal, just without the fireworks. However, the city has agreed to a contract for $15,000 with Robert Foxworth to do fireworks for the show.
Foxworth told council members he would not move the show for any reason and that there would be a show on Nov. 18 or no show at all.
Council members Jared Rutberg and Anthony Henderson both agreed that if the city had to pay Foxworth the $15,000 then the fireworks should stay.
Despite the comments from Rutberg and Henderson, Baggett closed the topic by stating the city would move forward without the firework show on Nov. 18, but still paying Foxworth.
“As it stands now, we will do the lighting of the tree like we’ve always done it, [but] with no fireworks,” Baggett said. “We will pay Mr. Foxworth his money.”
Like the Fourth of July, no official vote was made on the topic.
