Lewisboro Town Board has change of heart about Waccabuc fireworks

By NEAL RENTZ 

This Lewisboro Town Board did an about-face at its May 26 meeting, voting unanimously to allow the Waccabuc Country Club to hold its annual Independence Day fireworks show as originally scheduled for June 27.

On May 11, the Town Board unanimously denied the club’s request because June 27 is the same evening of the town’s fireworks.

Supervisor Tony Gonçalves said at this week’s meeting that at their previous meeting, the Town Board recommended that the country club change their date because of public safety concerns. Prior to the May 11 meeting, he said he had discussions with representatives of public safety entities in town and they were not concerned about potential public safety issues with the two events being held within minutes of each other.

He said follow up talks with the agencies, including the Lewisboro Police Department, the Lewisboro Volunteer Ambulance Corps and the South Salem Fire Department, took place. He recommended at this week’s meeting that the board allow the country club to hold its show June 27 because public safety agencies were not concerned about two events on the same night.

There was a board discussion prior to this week’s Town Board vote. Michael Sirignano, an attorney representing the country club, said the country club submitted its annual request to hold their fireworks show to the Building Department. 

“Like every year, for the last 30 years or more, probably, the Building Department processed it administratively,” Sirignano said. “Before they issued the permit they checked with the emergency responders, the fire department, the ambulance corps and the police chief.” 

He said it was known that the country club’s fireworks display was scheduled for the same night as the town’s annual show, he said.

“The Building Department was assured that adequate protection could be afforded to both events,” Sirignano said.

Country club general manager John Assumma was issued a permit to approve the fireworks show on Feb. 17, he said, adding club members were made aware of the date for this year’s show earlier this year.

Assumma, who assumed that the Town Board would approve the fireworks show permit from the Building Department, provided a nonrefundable deposit of $8,250 for Santore’s World Famous Fireworks which is slated to put on the show, Sirignano said. 

Councilman Dan Welsh said on May 11 the board had public safety concerns of having two fireworks shows held so closely together in time. 

“We were concerned about stresses on the first responders,” he said. The public safety agency representatives have told the town that holding fireworks shows on two consecutive nights would be more stressful on their members, Welsh said. 

Financial update

Also at this week’s meeting, Town Comptroller Annie Burnham provided an update on town finances so far this year. 

“What this financial update is doing is basically getting everybody up to speed on where our expenses are,” she said.

The details of the report have been shared with the town departments; the department heads have been tracking their expenses, Burnham said. 

Burnham’s report showed expenses versus the approved 2026 budget in a bar graph form. 

“We’ve got 64% of the annual budget yet to spend, which is a pretty good place to be,” Burnham said. 

By the end of May, Burnham said she expected that about 58% of the budget would be spent by the town departments.