Phantom Fireworks — one of two wholesalers that realize $1 million annually from fireworks booth sales in Manteca — donated $500 for the Manteca Police to buy bomb squad equipment.

The donation accepted by the City Council Tuesday comes almost three months after elected leaders expressed their displeasure that Phantom as well as TNT Fireworks were profiting while the city was incurring in excess of $85,000 in fire department overtime while responding to fireworks related fire and incidents.

There was interest expressed by council members at the March 3 meeting to follow Lodi’s lead and assess a charge on projected sales to go toward the cost recovery of task force teams that city deploys to combat illegal fireworks.

The rationale is by a city allowing legal fireworks they inadvertently provide cover for more egregious use of illegal fireworks.

The Lodi fee is 7 percent of all sales.

If that rate was applied to Manteca based on $1 million in overall gross sales, it would generate $70,000.

But instead of assessing it on the non-profit operators, council members wanted to find a way to shift it to the two fireworks vendors which is apparently not legal to do in California according to the city attorney.

Last year, Manteca’s task force effort as well as the need for an extra engine company for 72 hours due to a surge in fires caused by fireworks, cost the city $85,385 in overtime staffing.

TNT Fireworks did offer to provide a signage campaign on behalf of the Manteca Fire Department to promote the use of Safe and Sane Fireworks that they sell and to deter the use of illegal fireworks in the City of Manteca.

Several council members in March also lambasted Phantom Fireworks as well as TNT Fireworks for taking as much as $1 million a year out of the community while placing all the booth and location rental costs on non-profits.

Under current practices, each dollar the non-profits take in is split 50-50 with fireworks vendors.

The vendors provide the product and deliver it, and nothing else.

Non-profits not only man the booths but also cover renting the booth, ground rental, insurance and permitting fees the city charges to recover the cost of inspecting booths and issuing permits.

Several council members indicated that cuts the net for non-profits down to 30 to 40 percent.

The current ordinance caps the number of non-profit booths at one per 5,000 residents. In Manteca’s case that would translate to 18 booths that the city could allow.

Next year, the council has directed a $35 application fee for the booth lottery be imposed.

They did up the actual permit fee for this year from $150 to $250 per booth to try and recover costs incurred by the fire department inspecting booths.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com