The fireworks display – shot off from Parque de Vida by the Cortez Recreation Center – has been a Fourth of July tradition for decades. This year also marked the last for Montezuma County Commissioner Keenan Ertel, who has operated the show for the past 15-20 years, and has been involved with its production for about 25 years, he said.
Although he will “still be around,” the Cortez Fire Protection District will assume operational responsibilities, Ertel said.
“They have decided that after this year, they will become the new operators of the fireworks show in Cortez, which I think is going to be a very beneficial thing for the community and for the Fire Protection District,” he said.
The city’s share of the show was between $13,000 and $14,000, Ertel said, all used for buying the pyrotechnic products.
Last year, many communities across the state canceled Fourth of July fireworks shows because of dangerous fire conditions. But Cortez was still able to set off the display.
“We’re in the middle of a beautiful park, green grass, wet grounds,” Ertel said. “Our fear of causing a fire – wildfire or brush fire or grass fire, or anything like that – is negligible because we’re set up in such a green, luscious place.”
This year, families began staking out tents early in the afternoon, filling in the shaded spots on Parque de Vida and Centennial Park, while a few even posted up along the Montezuma Avenue median. Others sprawled out under sunny skies, watching kids play with Nerf guns and glow sticks, while a few Frisbee games strayed into the territory cordoned off for the later fireworks.
“I like it as a social gathering,” said Sonya Cuthair, who attends show each year. It’s become a Fourth of July tradition, she said, alongside family barbecues.
For Ida Marks, the show represented a homecoming. She had attended the show several times in the past, and came back this year after she and her family moved from New Mexico to Utah. Some of her children served in the military, she said, and this year she was celebrating their safe return.
Ertel said it’s difficult to count the show’s attendance, although he estimates that the event draws a few thousand every year.
“Most displays have an audience that sits in a certain area, and you arrange and line up your pyrotechnics to work to that audience in one direction,” he said. “Well, at this place, we have them 360 degrees around us – we’re sitting in the middle like ducks in a pond, with people all around us.”
As the sun dropped down and shadows spread across the fields, tents and picnic blankets sprouted up in more numerous quantities. Smoke curled up from grills, while a few isolated fireworks blasts teased the show to come.
About 20 minutes before the display began, families were startled by a deer that made a frantic dash across Centennial Park, dodging picnickers and disappearing across North Park Street.
The show itself began in earnest about 9 p.m. And Ertel’s last year heading it went out with a bang, featuring cascades of golden rain, a “Niagara falls” shower, colorful Ferris wheel bursts, and a few slightly foreboding gas bombs.
“We love the fireworks,” Cuthair said.
ealvero@the-journal.com