ROCK SPRINGS — During the Rock Springs City Council meeting last night, the Council voted down a contract to pay $20,000 for fireworks for the city’s Fourth of July celebration this year.

In 5-3 vote, the motion to approve the $20,000 for the 2021 fireworks show with Fireworks West Internationale, Inc., failed. Councilors Tim Savage, Tim Robinson, David Halter, Brent Bettolo and Larry Hickerson voted against the motion to approve, while Councilors Jeannie Demas, Keaton West and Mayor Tim Kaumo voted in favor of the motion. Councilor Rob Zotti was absent from the meeting.

“So that fails and we will have no fireworks,” Mayor Kaumo said after the motion failed. “We’ll have to go to Green River.”

None of the Councilors who voted no on the motion said why they were voting no. However, a lot of discussion earlier in the evening centered around the city’s financial shortfall, the need to help try and find a way to fund a county-wide ambulance service, and how the city asked departments and organizations the city supports to cut their budgets by 30 percent.

This isn’t the first time the Council has decided not to pay for a fireworks show. Back in 2017, the Council approved a budget without including funding for a fireworks display. According to a SweetwaterNOW events’ list for the Fourth of July in 2017, Rock Springs did not have a fireworks show that year.

However, in October of 2017, the Council established a PayPal account to allow community fundraising efforts to take place to enough money for the show. Thanks to these efforts, in 2018 Rock Springs once again hosted a fireworks show on the Fourth of July, according to a SweetwaterNOW events’ calendar for fireworks displays. “Thanks to several sponsors, the firework display is back in Rock Springs…” The article states.

For now, it appears there will not be city-sponsored fireworks in Rock Springs this Fourth of July.