{"id":137599,"date":"2026-07-04T10:11:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T16:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-mayor-urges-civility-in-fourth-of-july-fireworks-debate\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T10:58:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T16:58:29","slug":"cortez-mayor-urges-civility-in-fourth-of-july-fireworks-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-mayor-urges-civility-in-fourth-of-july-fireworks-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Fireworks lit up the Cortez sky after mayor urged civility in Fourth of July fireworks debate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The city of Cortez released a statement from Mayor Dennis Spruell on Thursday addressing concerns about the city\u2019s fireworks show. (Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Cortez Mayor Dennis Spruell urged community members to remain civil in debates over the city\u2019s Fourth of July fireworks display prior to the show, emphasizing that the Cortez Fire Protection District and other safety professionals supported holding the celebration as usual. The fireworks did proceed as planned July 4, with the sounds of cheers and car horns echoing throughout the park for the entirety of the show.<\/p>\n

In a statement released by the city of Cortez on July 2, Spruell spoke of \u201cstrong public opinions\u201d on the fireworks, asking that residents avoid directing anger at city staff members, public safety personnel and firefighters.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs your mayor, I ask that we engage on this topic in a respectful manner. We are all neighbors here in Cortez; while it is perfectly appropriate to disagree, it is never acceptable to demean, devalue, or disrespect one another or those who serve our city,\u201d Spruell said in his statement.<\/p>\n

\"Mayor
Mayor Spruell\u2019s full statement.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

He added that the conditions at Parque de Vida support a safe and successful show like previous years. In a phone call July 3, Spruell told The<\/em> Journal<\/em> that many of the concerns from residents were regarding respect for firefighters, but the Cortez Fire Protection District hosts the show and launches the fireworks.<\/p>\n

The Cortez Fire Protection District did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Spruell also argued that canceling the official display may indirectly encourage and increase the risk of unregulated personal fireworks use, leading to greater fire hazards.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf people don\u2019t have fireworks and they want fireworks, it\u2019s a possibility that they could get some and start their own, and that\u2019s exactly what we don\u2019t want to happen,\u201d Spruell said. \u201cWe want them to be able to come to Cortez and enjoy a safe fireworks display, and not shoot their own up and cause major fires.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city and the fire district monitored the weather and environmental conditions leading up to the event, emphasizing the show would be canceled if conditions deteriorated and it was no longer safe to proceed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognize and respect that there are deeply held, differing perspectives on this matter within our community. However, canceling the event without an operational basis determined by professionals erodes public trust,\u201d he said in the posted statement.<\/p>\n

He added that, as long as it is safe, the fireworks show is an integral part of celebrating the U.S.\u2019s 250th birthday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica is the greatest country in the whole wide world, and why not celebrate living in the most magnificent country in the whole wide world? We get together once a year to celebrate that, and I\u2019d hate to see that go away because of some fears,\u201d Spruell told The<\/em> Journal<\/em>. \u201cI\u2019m not going to quit living because I\u2019m afraid of dying, and you know, I want us to celebrate and show our patriotism and how much we love our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Facebook, comments supporting and ridiculing the show were posted in equal measure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about patriotism it\u2019s about the safety of the community and citizens within it and the surrounding areas,\u201d one commenter said. \u201cOur whole state is on fire and we had three firefighters die fighting at the border of Colorado and Utah.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other places that canceled their fireworks like Ute Mtn and Mancos should bring theirs to Cortez and have a hour long grand finale,\u201d another said. \u201cFor the ones crying about Cortez still putting it on, wtf is going to catch on fire? The green grass or concrete or asphalt?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sheriff Steve Nowlin expressed his concerns in a phone call, noting the growing Ferris Fire and dry lightning set to return to the area June 29. He said the chance of individuals still setting off their own fireworks was high.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the Fourth of July weekend, I\u2019m just kind of holding my breath,\u201d Nowlin said. \u201cAll it takes is somebody using fireworks and it could be detrimental.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nowlin added that a petty offense for shooting off fireworks is a fine of $300 and 10 days in jail. No one under 16 years of age is permitted to possess or use permissible fireworks, which \u201cemits sparks or noise, but is not aerials or explosions.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the city, violators could have faced misdemeanor charges, fines and jail time, according to the Cortez city code<\/a>, along with the potential revocation of any license or permit issued. Each day prohibited is a separate offense.<\/p>\n

bduran@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018We\u2019re going to do everything in our power to make sure that it is a safe and fun Fourth of July,\u2019 mayor said<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,510,350,28,60,29,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-137599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-festive-event-including-carnival","tag-fire","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137599"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137925,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137599\/revisions\/137925"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137599"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=137599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}