As Kenneth Peart, former mayor and expert pyrotechnist, says every year, “It will be bigger and better!”
Peart is talking about the Fourth of July fireworks to begin at 9 p.m. Friday at the Recreational Complex on Sittig Road.
Peart will be directing and producing the showing while Donnie Richard, a volunteer and pyrotechnist, will handle the shooting.
The fireworks show lasts about 30 minutes.
“The finale of the show will have bigger specialty shell shots than last year. This year there will over 200 shots fired,” he said.
There will be more than 3,000 shots or shells fired.
“This year there will be more trailers filled with fireworks. The normal is five trailers, however, this year I will be using more trailers. The tubes and cylinders are placed on the trailers. Using trailers makes it easier if we need to move around. Plus the tubes are sitting on a trailer as opposed to the ground,” he said.
Peart works weeks prior to the 4th of July preparing and assembling the fuses and getting the tubes ready for the shells. Each cylinder tube is cleaned and flushed of anything foreign inside. They are used for loading and firing shells.
Peart, 80, has supervised the Eunice fireworks for more than 40 years.
According to Peart the state rule is for every inch-size shell, the crowd must be 87 feet away. However, his personal rule is 100 feet for every inch shell.
The shells are roundish brown objects, and range from 3 to 8 inches in size. The shells are fitted with fuses, and then loaded into mortars or tubes for firing.
Peart does a lot of preparation work ahead of the 4th of July holiday. Helpers include Wayne Richard, Donnie Wayne Richard and Shorty Rougeau. There are hundreds of boxes of shells to unload, unwrap and prepare.
Every year Peart orders the fireworks, usually in January or February, from a company in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. He travels to Missouri to pick up the fireworks.
Peart does not charge the city for his services, he said. His volunteer effort is not insignificant. He estimates a similar show would cost anywhere from $60,000 or more to stage. “The city pays about $20,000 for the fireworks,” Peart says. Peart added, “This year I was fortunate enough to have the price set before all the tariffs started going on.”
Peart has a great deal of volunteers helping him on the grounds of the Recreational Complex. He would like to express a thank you to those who have helped in the past and will help this year.
“Volunteers from Acadia Parish Fire Department as well as Eunice Fire Department, Eunice Police Auxiliary, and Eunice Police Department are always a tremendous help. They volunteer their manpower,” he said.
The fireworks show will go on as scheduled. If it is raining at the time of the fireworks show, it will be canceled.
Peart added, “Out of the many years of Eunice having a fireworks show, it was canceled only one time.”
