Jaycees prepare for Monday's annual fireworks show

Havre Jaycees will once again be illuminating the skies Monday night with their annual Fourth of July Night Display.

Fireworks will be set off in the corral at the Great Northern Fairgrounds at dark.

Chelby Gooch, Havre Jaycee and Montana state president of the organization, said the display is a more-than 20 year tradition.

Gooch said crowds typically gather in the parking lot of Holiday Village Mall in Havre and in the area surrounding the fairgrounds.

However, the display can be seen from as far as north of Havre, she said.

Each year's fireworks display is paid for by the Jaycees using the profits made the year before from their fireworks stand, which this year is at the corner of 2nd Street West and 16th Avenue.

"We pay our outstanding bill with the company that we get our fireworks through, and then whatever is leftover is what we spend on our show for the next year," Gooch said.

Gooch said last year just more than $8,000 was raised for this year's display.

As he has in the past, Jason Murri will be in charge of setting up the show.

How those fireworks have been set up has changed throughout the years.

"It's all computerized now, where before they used to be shot off by hand," Gooch said.

There have been years when the display has been delayed due to weather, Gooch said.

Last year's fireworks display was postponed minutes before the fireworks were set to go off, as fierce winds and hail up to 2 inches in diameter pummeled the area.

An abbreviated display was later held, but many of the fireworks had been damaged by the storm.