The sale of fireworks for personal use starts this Sunday.

It marks the fifth year Manteca non-profits are able to sell fireworks. More than $600,000 has been raised to benefit a wide array of Manteca organizations.

One booth – the Manteca Police Officers Association that typically sells fireworks at Union Road and Yosemite Avenue – generates funds to help pay for the aerial fireworks and community celebration at the Big League Dreams sports complex that takes place this year on July 3. The police officers typically help pay for more of a third of the tab that can run as high as $20,000.

 Organizations selling fireworks this year are Alta Vista Christian School, Crossroads Grace Community Church, East Union High School Athletic Booster Club, Kiwanis Club of Manteca, Love, Inc., Manteca Babe Ruth, Manteca Christian Worship Center,  Manteca Historical Society, Manteca Jaguars Youth Football, Manteca Police Officers Association, Northgate Community Brethren Church, Robbie Taberna Memorial Scholarship Foundation, Sondance Christian Dance School, Tidewater Southern Railway Historical Society, and Victorious Elite Allstars.

The use and sale of safe and sane fireworks in Manteca will now be legal through at least 2014 thanks to a Manteca City Council vote in April.

The council also decided to impose a $350 permit on each of the 14 non-profit organizations that get to sell fireworks each year in a bid to cover part of the fire department’s increased manpower for booth inspections. The actual cost had been put at $500 per booth. The organizations that are selected by a lottery process each year have not been charged for permits in the past.

Council members noted in April that residents before the sale and use of legal fireworks drove to nearby cities to purchase them and still set them off in Manteca.

Proof of that was in the first year of legalized sales in Manteca when Ripon non-profits reported a sharp drop-off in sales.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, e-mail dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com