County boom-boom donations a no-no

Patti Brandt Burgess, The Record-Eagle, Traverse City, Mich.
·3 min read

Apr. 21—TRAVERSE CITY — It takes about $75,000 to pull off the annual Fourth of July Fireworks show in Traverse City.

Much of that comes from private donations from residents and businesses, with a chunk coming from Traverse City Tourism and the National Cherry Festival, said Trevor Tkach, president of the TC Boom Boom Club, which collects money for the event.

This year, Tkach sent a letter to Grand Traverse County Administrator Nate Alger asking the county to consider making a donation. Alger included the letter in the board packet for this week's county board of commissioners meeting.

What Alger, board members and especially Tkach, who was contacted by the Record-Eagle, did not know is that donations from any county to an event celebrating the Fourth of July or any fireworks celebration is not legal.

"It's news to me," Tkach said. "This is a pretty big Fourth of July event that attracts a lot of Grand Traverse County residents."

Tkach said the TC Boom Boom Club exists for the sole purpose of celebrating our nation's independence. He said the club will just have to knock on other doors.

Attorney Gordon J. Love of Cohl, Stoker & Toskey, represents the county board. A law on the books for more than a century says that townships, cities and villages can allocate funds for the Fourth of July, but counties can't, Love said.

The only allowable celebrations counties may appropriate tax dollars to are for Veterans Day, once known as Armistice Day, he said.

"I can't explain the rationale behind those, other than — at the point in 1909 when the first statute passed — people weren't thinking about counties in the same way that counties are functioning now," Love said.

A county could come under scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Treasury, especially during the annual audit, Love said. Deputy Administrator Chris Forsyth made a tongue-in-cheek observation that the state attorney general could open a criminal case.

Grand Traverse County donated $2,000 to the Boom Boom Club in 2014 and 2015. It was after 2015 that the law came to light, Alger said, although that was before he was hired.

In the end, Commissioner Darryl V. Nelson made a motion thanking the club for its efforts and encouraged all those who are allowed to make donations to consider doing so.

The motion passed on a partisan vote with the three Democrats on the board voting "no."

Commissioner T.J Andrews said she would have preferred to take no action, which Love said would have been acceptable.

"I don't think we need to be weighing in on the merits of the underlying event," Andrews said.

TC Boom Boom Club's July 4 display will be back for the second year after pandemic concerns prompted its 2020 show to be canceled, as previously reported. So, too, will the National Cherry Festival's own end-of-festivities display, which was canceled in 2021.

Traverse City commissioners on Monday approved permits for both the TC Boom Boom Club's July 4 and the Cherry Fest's July 8 shows, both of which Great Lakes Fireworks will launch from a barge 1,000 feet off Clinch Park Marina's west breakwall, city memos show.

Record-Eagle reporter Jordan Travis contributed to this article.

Record-Eagle reporter Jordan Travis contributed to this article.