The much-anticipated annual Sparks in The Park fireworks show and festivities were canceled just before 4 p.m. Saturday, in the interest of public safety because of inclement weather forecasts, Ross Cowling, parks director said.
"It was a collaborative effort to cancel Sparks in the Park," Cowling said, adding that The City of Texarkana, Ark., Public Works Department, Police Department and Townsquare Media made the call to cancel the event when it continued to rain until 3 p.m.
"We had discussed it early in the morning and as the day went on and the chances of rain continued to increase, the weather radar we were looking at was showing an 80 percent chance of rain before 8 p.m.," Cowling explained. "We put so much time and effort in trying to put on (this) event … we were trying to think (of) how do we make this happen."
"… Ultimately it was not the call we wanted to have to make. It's not easy to cancel something early in the day. It rained all morning long, it was again a tough decision … but we had everyone's best interests at heart," he said.
Cowling said the main idea was to make sure they were able to get the information out to the public quickly, and the weather was a huge safety concern; The fireworks would have had to be uncovered at 8 p.m. and rain would not have allowed for that, he said. Cowling added that setting up sound, speakers and other electric devices and getting it done in an hour, when it didn't stop raining until 3 p.m., was difficult and didn't seem plausible because of the forecast.
As far as rescheduling, Cowling said, "We will have to visit that next week, we have several options to look."
"It's been tough, this is a hard Fourth for me to swallow. Tonight I'm so upset about it, I'm just going to stay at home … I do hope the people get to go out and see some fireworks," he said.