In St. Joseph, there will be one less reason to look to the sky this Fourth of July.

The Lake Contrary Development Association has announced that its annual Fourth at the Lake event at Lake Contrary will be canceled this year, due to insufficient funds. While the lake will be open to the public on Saturday, July 4, from 7 a.m. to dusk, there will be no fireworks display.

Unlike in the past seven years, where Buchanan County allotted the event $5,000, this year’s Fourth at the Lake only received $1,500. That’s because, according to Ron Hook, Western District country commissioner, the county’s discretionary funds were slashed from $90,000 to $40,000 for the year. That money is divided among the Fourth at the Lake, Trails West!, the Southside Fall Festival, May Fest and other smaller events.

“With the economy the way it is and the cuts we had to make in the budget, we had to trim everybody,” Mr. Hook said.

But Mr. Hook didn’t know just how much the previous higher amounts aided the annual event. “I was not aware that the $5,000 donation in the past supplied 100 percent of the fireworks,” he said.

Actually, it provided more than that. Joan Bennett, president of the Lake Contrary Development Association, said the $5,000 paid for the fireworks display and insurance, along with security and portable toilets for the event. The association itself raises money to pay for all the games, booths and children’s activities.

Ms. Bennett said when she was told just before Memorial Day of the amount they would be receiving, she knew that it wouldn’t be enough to pay Jeremy Kovac, the owner of Aerial FX in St. Joseph, to put on his usual fireworks spectacle. The Lake Contrary Development Association board of directors voted to cancel the event.

“There’s no sense going on with the rest of it because (the fireworks are) the main attraction,” Ms. Bennett said.

She claims that while the association had been inquiring about how much it would receive starting in January, the county didn’t get back to them until May with the news of the decreased amount. She also claims that if they had known about the amount sooner, they would have made attempts to raise the funds to keep the event going. However, Mr. Hook claims that the lake association knew about the amount back in March or April.

Regardless, there will be one less big bang in St. Joseph. According to Fourth at the Lake co-founder Mark Sheehan, that’s not good for anyone’s Independence Day.

“It’s really too bad for the kids,” Mr. Sheehan said. “For a lot of kids, this is their Fourth of July.”

Fireworks displays and Fourth of July events at Terrible’s St. Jo Frontier Casino and at Phil Welch Stadium will go on as scheduled.

Blake Hannon can be reached

at blakehannon@npgco.com.