_{Thumbnail photo courtesy of the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce}

To some Del Norters, President Trump’s tariffs may be a political talking point, but a representative of the local visitors bureau says they’ve made this year’s July 4th fireworks more expensive.

The price tag for the community’s fireworks increased to $39,800 from last year’s costs of $36,000, according to Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Cindy Vosburg. She declined to mention the president’s name, but said after he began implementing tariffs last spring, she contacted Pyro Spectaculars, the family-owned San Francisco-based company that’s created the local professional display for the past 25 years.

“For many years it was $30,000 and then three years ago they had to increase their prices,” Vosburg told Redwood Voice Community News, adding that the cost rose to about $36,000. “But then this year, it was a 10% increase because of the tariffs.”

On Tuesday, Vosburg went before the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors, asking them to increase their annual contribution by $5,000. She said she’ll make a similar request of the city soon.

For years, the chamber has relied on donations, fundraising and sponsorships to put on the Deck Party, the Independence Day parade, the festival in the park and the fireworks show. This includes spending $6,500 for portable toilets as well as $1,500 for security before and during the fireworks display.

On Tuesday, Vosburg told supervisors that between 100 and 150 local businesses contribute to the 4th of July festivities, offering between $300 and $10,000 toward its costs. 

“I didn’t want to have to ask businesses to increase their donations,” she said. “I felt that the city and county could contribute, between the two of them, at least $10,000 to help offset those costs.”

The Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed to increase its annual contribution to the chamber and visitors bureau by $5,000. Prior to their decision, the county had contributed $114,340 to both organizations with $22,000 going to the chamber to operate the visitors center.

On Wednesday, Vosburg told Redwood Voice that the chamber is in negotiations with City Manager Eric Wier about the $5,000 additional contribution to help offset the fireworks cost. She said she anticipates the item will come before the City Council in April.

Operating the visitor center costs about $60,000, Vosburg told supervisors. The gift shop brings in about $10,000.

“So that leaves us a $50,000 net cost to run the visitor center, which really important to help keep the tourists here and keep them happy,” she said.

Of the $114,340 the county contributes about $80,000 of that goes to the Del Norte County Visibors Bureau to “bring the next new visitor to Del Norte County.

At that meeting, District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard asked Vosburg to remind his colleagues of what the county’s contribution is and how much running the visitors center costs. 

Howard pointed out that between 2006 and today, transiency occupancy tax revenue in Del Norte County as increased from about $200,000 to a little more than $1.4 million. Del Norte’s contribution to the visitors bureau and chamber has not kept up with that increase, he said.

“I think this Board needs to consider long term, a better mechanism and a percentage to offset those costs,” he said. “Right now we’re about 8% of that TOT if we just look at it… I think we need to look at something more in the neighborhood of 10% of a TOT annually.”

Howard said that contribution percentage could fluctuate based on the chamber and visitor bureau’s success.

On Feb. 17, following a presentation to the Crescent City Council, Vosburg said that the visitors bureau operates on an annual budget of $182,000. Crescent City contributes $80,000 to the visitors bureau and also provides $22,000 to the chamber for operating the visitors center.

At that meeting, Vosburg noted that visitors bring about $1.9 million to Crescent City and Del Norte County in transiency occupancy tax revenue annually, asked councilors to imagine what they could do with more money.

“We’re your investment,” she said. “We’re part of your team, we’re part of the staff that recruits and brings people in and so what we’re going to ask of you is that as you go into the budget season this year and you do your workshops, that you think about investing more with the visitor bureau and letting us work harder for you and as smart as we have been.”

The Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce began planning for this year’s Independence Day bash in February. Since it’s the country’s 250th birthday, Vosburg said it’ll be big, but the theme is still not finalized.

Vosburg couldn’t say how much it cost to put on Crescent City’s Independence Day celebration. When she was first hired as its executive director in 2019, the chamber listed 84 people whose efforts led to a successful event and published it in the Triplicate. 

“That’s everything: putting out cones, putting signs on cones, locking and unlocking port o’ potties, picking up at the park,” she said. “There’s dozens of nonprofits that chip in and help and there’s 80-something people that give up their time and help make this happen.”

That doesn’t count the beach cleanups after the fireworks are spent.

“The hours and hours of volunteers that go out and clean up afterwards, how do you put a price on that?” Vosburg asked. “The real value is the fact that they’re part of this community and they feel good about what they’re doing.”