Rocket's red glare

Staff Writer

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After days of celebrating and 102 degree heat, Portales residents were excited to settle down at the softball complex for the annual fireworks show.

Catherine Mendoza, mother of 3-year-old Miles Mendoza, said this is the first year she has been able to bring her son to the fireworks.

Staff photo:

Kurt Munz-Raper

The sky is lit up with red, white and blue Monday night as part of the Portales fireworks display, cut short by technical

difficulties with the firework shooter.

“I’m pretty excited for him to see the fireworks. They’re so great,” Mendoza said.

Chris Mendoza, father of Miles, said the fireworks are great because it is time you get to have with family.

“It is nice to see everyone get together and have fun,” said Chris.

Brandon Eyres, who attended the fireworks with his wife and three kids, just moved from England with the Air Force and this is one of his first experiences in Portales since being back.

“It’s a beautiful day to celebrate,” he said.

While the night was beautiful, the fireworks did not have the chance to be as beautiful as they could have been.

The show was cut short, eliminating approximately 25 percent of the show including the finale due to a wiring mishap within the firework shooter, according to Executive Director of the Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce Karl Terry.

Terry said though Roosevelt County has used the same company out of Denver for the fireworks for six years, there was a new employee actually shooting off the show. He was unsure as to whether this change had anything to do with the show being cut short.

He said he is still waiting on final information from the company, J and M Displays out of Denver, on what caused the problem.

He said overall, the new location of the fireworks, the Portales Softball Complex, went over about as well as it could have for having so many attendees.

“Traffic cleared out as fast or faster than the arena. There was minimal trash when I checked today. It went just fine,” he said.

He said they plan on continuing to use the space for future years in lieu of the Eastern New Mexico University baseball fields which was used as the prime fireworks space on and off for decades past but is now home to the new ENMU Football Stadium.

Terry said the best part of it was being able to collaborate with the City of Portales and give the ENMU staff a break. He said they collaborated with the parks department and police department among other people in the city to achieve this year’s show.

“Everybody was great,” Terry said.

Jeff Collins, who attended the show with his grandchildren and children, said though one of his grandchildren got scared, the majority enjoyed it.

“I mean, it is kind of sad to sit here for an hour and a half and get half a show but it’s better than what I got and the kids enjoyed it, so what else matters?” said Collins.