Fireworks Light Up New Strawn

Becky Reeves
News Editor

NEW STRAWN—Friday evening, New Strawn City Park was ablaze with all varieties of color and the town echoed with the sounds of amateur explosions. But after dark, the real fireworks began.

This July 4, the best-kept secret in New Strawn leaked and residents from all over Coffey County came to check out the claim that New Strawn has the most impressive fireworks display in the county. The show, which lasted 16 minutes, burned up $2,700 worth of pyrotechnics and earned the town its bragging rights.

Behind the scenes, a crew of five, led by Jim Foreman, began planning for the display more than a year ago. Helping with the planning and set up were Dan Williamson, Dave Gibson, Robert Harkrader and Keith Stiner.

“More than a year before the show, we start working on designing the display,” said Foreman. “This spring, we purchased fireworks from Schneitter Fireworks in St. Joseph, Mo. After they arrived, we spent about four days inserting electric matches into all the fireworks with fuses.”

Foreman said it took about eight days to complete the pre-setup and three hours the day of the show to set up the assemblies and complete the wiring in the field. Jim’s fiancé, Bev Martin, helped with the wiring.

This year’s show used 2000 shells ranging in size from 1 ¾ inch to 6 inches in diameter, 505 unique ignition points and 220 cues.

Foreman became interested in fireworks when his father used to shoot off fireworks with him as a child. In 1996, he met a member of the Pyrotechnics Guild International (PGI) from Kansas City. He joined the guild and attended his first PGI convention in Iowa. The conventions offer workshops that teach how to build shells and set up displays. They also host a trade show where the latest trends and pyrotechnics can be viewed. Foreman learned to build shells at one of the workshops. He used a six-inch shell that he had built himself in Friday night’s display. It was a chrysanthemum that went from red to green to crackle.

Foreman, who is a computer analyst at Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation, began helping with the New Strawn fireworks displays three years ago. “The first year I was involved, we set off all the fireworks by hand using torches,” said Foreman. “The second year, I had built some equipment that allowed us to manually fire some of the shells with the system, but we still lit some of the fireworks by hand. This year, the entire program was fully automatic using my firing system. I literally pushed one button that started the display and then set back and videotaped the program.”

As a member of Michigan Pyrotechnics Arts Guild, Foreman attended the 2000 PGI annual convention where he saw an impressive display of fireworks. Using a variation of these ideas, he developed this year’s display based on the budget he was given. He began designing the display by choosing music that could be played along with the display. He then set up the timing and chose the appropriate types of shells. He was also instrumental in developing some of the software that was necessary for planning the program.

Naturally, Foreman’s plans for the July 4, 2004 display began about a month ago, and the display will be choreographed to the music that he has already chosen. “I will need to purchase about $700 worth of software so that I can synchronize the music with the computerized firing system,” explained Foreman.

Two years ago, he began building his firing system, which costs between $25,000-$30,000. Foreman’s hobby does not extend beyond New Strawn’s display.

The show was nearly perfect. “I pushed the button to begin the display at 9:45 p.m., exactly when the show was to start,” said Foreman. “There were no misfires but there were two glitches in my computer program, which caused two shells not to fire. It was literally a typo, but no one probably noticed,” said Foreman.

The launching area was set up west of the city maintenance building in a 50’ x 150’ open field to assure the public’s safety. “To launch a six-inch shell, you are required to have an 840-foot diameter shooting site,” said Foreman. “Since the shells are high density polyethylene, similar to what milk cartons are made of, they can be launched in above ground racks.”

Foreman said that the county fire administrator visited the site to assure that they were meeting state distance requirements. Most of the crew has taken shooter safety classes. Williamson and Foreman are both licensed with the Kansas State Fire Marshall as public display operators.

Besides the $2,700 for the fireworks, electric matches were $300 and the insurance was $650. Sponsors for the display were Casey’s General Store, Citizens State Bank, Coffey County Chamber of Commerce, WCNOC, Jim Foreman and New Strawn citizens.

It was pretty obvious from the turnout Friday night that New Strawn knows how to put on a show. If you missed this year’s display, Foreman said that next year’s will be the same, only better since music will be added.