Saturday’s aerial Fourth of July fireworks display is costing the City of Manteca $46,000.
The general fund expenditure, however, likely will be offset by fines slapped on those cited for illegal fireworks at $1,000 a pop during the stepped up Manteca Police enforcement employing drone units and ground patrols.
Manteca is the only South County city per se to underwrite an aerial fireworks show in the Fourth of July.
Tracy does have aerial fireworks but the tab is being covered by the Tracy Chamber of Commerce.
Ripon several years ago stopped downing aerial fireworks as it proved difficult for that community’s chamber of commerce to raise funds to pay for the display.
Lathrop does do fireworks this time of the year but they are tonight — July 1 — as part of the city’s annual “birthday celebration” marking its incorporation in 1989.
By having fireworks four days early, Lathrop avoids a hefty up charge on the Fourth of July when the demand for displays is at the highest and there are limited technicians trained and licensed to launch them.
Manteca shifted its Fourth of July aerial displays to July 3 in the middle of the Great Recession to save money but was inundated with angry emails, letters, and social media postings complaining the city was being “un-American.”
The city has stayed with the Fourth of July ever since.
For decades, a local non-profit formed for the sole purpose of staging a community celebration capped with aerial fireworks fundraised for the day-long event.
When the Fourth of July Committee began struggling for volunteers and had difficulty fundraising, the celebration and aerial fireworks went into hiatus.
About 25 years ago, the Manteca Chamber of Commerce brought both back but eventually had a difficult time raising money.
That was when bonus bucks — discretionary funds developers paid starting in 2001 for a number of years — were tapped by the city to pay for the annual aerial display.
The move avoided using general fund money used for day-to-day services to pay for the fireworks.
When the bonus bucks ran out, the city for years used half the proceeds from a safe and sane fireworks booth the Manteca Police Officers Association operated to help defray the cost of the aerial display. The shortfall was covered by the general fund.
It is now a 100 percent general fund expenditure.
That said, law breakers being cited for illegal fireworks this year may cover the entire tab for the City of Manteca’s Fourth of July weekend expenses from police and fire overtime to the actual fireworks display.
Last year’s numbers
If the city ends up issuing 109 citations and collects $130,255 in fines for illegal fireworks this year as they did in 2025, the cost of the Fourth won’t cost Manteca taxpayers, per se, a cent.
The fines go into the city’s general fund.
Last year, Manteca Police cost $76,934.13 for 349.2 overtime hours.
There was $8,451.03 worth of fire department overtime for an additional engine company to handle the usual big surge in service calls plus 40 hours of overtime for fire inspectors costing $3,547.22.
The total for public safety overtime came to $83,385.16.
Toss in the city cost of the aerial fireworks display at $46,000 and the bottom line is a $139,385 expenditure between public safety OT and the aerial fireworks.
That doesn’t account for public works overtime connected with the staging of the parade.
The fines were never intended to generate revenue per se to cover the city’s costs.
But thanks to the wanton disregard for public safety by those launching illegal fireworks, Councilwoman Regina Lackey notes the city could almost be made whole after the cost of staging the free aerial fireworks show, incurring police overtime to handle an uptick in everything from DUIs to domestic issues as well as enforce actions against illegal pyrotechnics, and the increase in staffing to respond to a jump in fire and medical emergency calls.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
