Try Something New!

We heard a lot of grumbling about the city of Marinette's decision not to have fireworks and a parade on the Fourth of July.

That's understandable. These things are part and parcel of our Independence Day tradition, and they have been part of Marinette's summer event calendar since the day's when Mairnette and Menominee alternated the celebration and called it Homecoming. (For newcomers and anyone who's not at least a Baby Boomer, that was in the late 50s and early 60s.)

The grumbling continued for more than 10 days, right up until the day the city finally unleashed its fireworks, at the tail end of the new, two-day Logging & Heritage Festival. Chamber staffers estimated they received 20-30 calls daily.

Still many people tried the festival, and liked what they saw. We give them kudos for being open to a new idea.

(For the record, the chamber did not make the decision to move festivities from the Fourth of July. The festival is the city's event, not the chamber's. Numerous newspaper and radio stories have made that pretty clear. Still, we do promote all area events. It's part of our mission. But we couldn't possibly run them all!)

It will be interesting to see what happens next. The city has to decide whether it wants to continue a mid-July event, go back the the Fourth of July holiday, or maybe find a sponsor for additional fireworks. There are many possibilities.

In Menominee, dog lovers are disappointed today that the city council rejected a proposal for an enclosed dog park within John Henes Park. Members of our Community Leadership Academy Class of 2012 will be understandably dismayed to learn the profits of their Aug. 18 dog walk in the park (dogs have permission to be in the park on leashes that day) won't got to helping create the park.

We liked Councilman Al Walker's suggestion that the city open the park on a trial basis. It might have worked.

Dog support supporters say they'll try again. We wish them luck.

Try is the operative word. Always.