Fireworks to return to July 4

Fireworks will be back on the 4th of July in the city of Medford.

At Tuesday’s Medford City Council meeting, members approved a five-year contract with Big Daddy Fireworks to provide the annual Fourth of July show.

In the past few years the city had the fireworks show on July 3 due to a contract with a previous out-of-state vendor. Big Daddy’s Fireworks is locally owned by Ben Rehbein.

Under the contract, Big Daddy’s Fireworks will provide a 25-minute display. The price to the city was set at $13,000 per show for the first two years with the opportunity to renegotiate the See MEDFORD on page 4 terms of the contract between the second and third year.

City coordinator Joe Harris said this would allow them to adjust the price if infl ation causes an increase. He noted that if everyone is satisfied after year two, the city can keep it as is and won’t need to renegotiate the contract.

Council member Dave Brandner asked about the length of the show and if it could be longer.

Harris noted that in recent years the shows have been getting to be 15 to 20 minutes, so the 25 minute show will be longer.

Ben Rehbein of Big Daddy’s Fireworks, said their typical shows in the past 10 years of doing fireworks has been between 18 and 25 minutes. He said if it goes much longer than that, families and children get bored or start to want to leave. “If you stretch it out it gets slower,” he said.

By comparison, the fireworks show the company has done for the Medford Area Chamber of Commerce Lighting of the Lights event for the Christmas season has been between 20 and 23 minutes long.

“There are people who actually want it shorter,” said council member Mike Bub, noting the people who live near the park and who want it to end so they can go to bed. Typically for the 4th of July, because they have to wait until it is dark, the show does not start until around 10 p.m.

Council members unanimously agreed to the five-year contract with Big Daddy’s Fireworks.

In other fireworks business, council members unanimously approved a permit for the Medford Area Chamber of Commerce to have a fireworks display on November 24, which is the Friday night after Thanksgiving.

Bub noted the city’s fireworks policy says permits must be applied for at least 45 days in advance and questioned if the policy was being followed.

City Clerk Ashley Lemke said under the policy if the permit is applied for between 44 and 15 days before the event, the city can still consider it, but there is an additional $50 fee as a penalty for not meeting the 45-day deadline. Lemke said that was put in place after the school district and other groups didn’t meet the 45days set in policy.

“I just wanted to make sure they are being consistent,” Bub said of following the policy.

In other business, council members:

Approved assessing delinquent utilities to the property owners. As of November 2, the total delinquencies were $5,779.63. Of that $1,542,29 was from homeowners, $3,824.17 was from renters and $248.80 was from commercial. In addition there were $164.36 in delinquencies in the town of Medford for city utility customers. The people have until November 15 to pay or it will be put on the tax rolls with a 10% penalty added to it. Last year, the city had $3,134.70 in delinquent payments put on the tax rolls.

Approved a pair of actions related to Tax Incremental District (TID) No. 11 which includes the area of Alter Metal, Enerquip and Melvin Companies. Council members approved a one year extension of the TID with the funds to go toward housing expansion projects in the city. Under the Affordable Housing Extension, 75% of the money needs to be used for low to moderate income housing and the remaining 25% can be used for any residential housing in the city. The city has used this extension with other recently closed TIDs using money retained to provide assistance to housing projects on Pep’s Drive and for people building additional multi-family homes in the city. Council members also approved formally closing the TID. Under TIDs, property taxes collected in the district which would normally be split with the county, school district and technical college district are frozen at the level when the district is formed. The city keeps the full amount of taxes on improvements in those areas.

Approved the health insurance renewal with Security Health with an increase of 10.2%. The city will apply 2% of the premium fees from the city’s Health Insurance Reserve Fund account to reduce the budgetary impact of the increase. City employees pay 15% of the premium cost. Under the change, the employees in the family plan will pay $292.61 per month with the city paying $1,658.14 per month. In other insurance action, approved Delta Dental’s policy for employee dental insurance with a 2% increase.

Approved a 4% wage increase for employees other than library staff. The Library Board sets the wages for the library staff.

Approved hiring 64 North to provide Pulled pork sandwiches and coleslaw, au gratin potato and bbq sauce for the city hall staff Christmas lunch at a cost of $269 plus gratuity. In addition the city will get cookies through Black River Industries. The city had sought price quotes from several local establishments with this being the lowest.

Approved a cigarette and tobacco license for All New Tobacco Vape Outlet, LLC doing business as Smoke World Vape which will be located at 541 S. 8th St., the former Liske Marine building. The license is good until June 30, 2024. This will be the third vape shop to open in the city in recent years. Lemke noted the parent company is based in Minnesota.

Approved a change in the city codes regarding records retention to allow the city to store files on microfilm rather than in paper format.