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Update: Shelter Island Chamber fireworks show called off — again

ELEANOR P. LABROZZI PHOTO | This did not happen Saturday night at Shelter Island’s Crescent Beach but, with a little more luck, it will tonight.

Update: Sunday night’s fireworks show at Crescent Beach has been cancelled due to inclement weather, Shelter Island Fire Department officials said.

No decision had been made about rescheduling the annual Chamber of Commerce event. More details to follow.

The fireworks were first scheduled for Saturday night but were cancelled because of a technical problem.

Original Story: A technical glitch forced the postponement of Saturday night’s annual Shelter Island Chamber of Commerce fireworks show at Crescent Beach until tonight, Sunday, July 15 at 9:15 when everyone will try again.

A fire truck with a PA system rolled down the beach road beginning about 9:40 p.m. Saturday night — above a half hour after the show should have started — with the announcement that the show had to be canceled and it would take place instead tonight, Sunday, at 9:15 p.m. A groan went up as the truck started the process and word quickly spread down the beach.

“Some people had been on the beach all day,” noted Chamber of Commerce President Arthur Williams.

A crowd of puzzled spectators estimated at between 3,500 and 4,000 people “handled themselves extremely well” when the official word came, said Mr. Williams Saturday morning. Chamber officials were heartbroken and  personnel from Bay Fireworks, which was to put on the show, had been mortified, according to Mr. Williams.

Radio communications had partially failed between the controllers on the beach and the fireworks array on a barge moored off the east end of Crescent Beach, he explained. At one point, technicians took the radio control box aboard a boat to get closer to the barge to see if a good signal could be obtained. That didn’t work.

Organizers discussed the possibility of putting on a smaller show with fireworks that could have been activated, Mr. Williams said, but they feared doing so might disrupt the technical set up for the rest of the array. In the end, the radio system failed almost completely and there was no choice but to cancel and reschedule for tonight, Sunday, Mr. Williams explained.