4TH OF JULY SHOW MOVED TO AIR PARK.Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer The rockets' red glare and the bombs bursting in air will light the skies over the Agua Dulce Agua Dulce is Spanish for "sweet water". It also refers to various locations: In Mexico:
fireworks Explosives or combustibles used for display. Of ancient Chinese origin, fireworks evidently developed out of military rockets and explosive missiles and accompanied the spread of military explosives westward to show at Vasquez Rocks Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park is a 905 acre (3 km²) northern Los Angeles County, California USA park acquired by LA County government in the 1970s. It is in the Agua Dulce vicinity between the Antelope Valley and the Santa Clarita Valley just north of Los Angeles and seen easily . The Agua Dulce Chamber of Commerce requested a permit to hold their Fourth of July Fourth of July, Independence Day, or July Fourth, U.S. holiday, commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Celebration of it began during the American Revolution. celebration at Vasquez Rocks County Park. The request was denied by the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Department of Parks and Recreation, which cited concerns over the preservation of ancient American Indian American Indian or Native American or Amerindian or indigenous American Any member of the various aboriginal peoples of the Western Hemisphere, with the exception of the Eskimos (Inuit) and the Aleuts. artifacts artifacts see specimen artifacts. at the 745-acre park. As a result, the chamber moved the event - which will get under way at 4 p.m. with fireworks about 9 p.m. - to the airport. Still, community residents - including members of the Chamber of Commerce and the Agua Dulce Town Council - were upset by the decision. They will have a chance to voice their opinions about the best use of the public park during a meeting at Agua Dulce Elementary School elementary school: see school. , 33201 Agua Dulce Canyon Road, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. June 25. The community workshop, sponsored by the county parks department, will address what should be the ``appropriate level of use at Vasquez Rocks.'' The county has hired a Pasadena firm that specializes in environmental compliance and resource management planning to draft a report on the ``recommended event capacity and sensitivity guidelines'' for Vasquez Rocks. The community Independence Day festivities fes·tiv·i·ty n. pl. fes·tiv·i·ties 1. A joyous feast, holiday, or celebration; a festival. 2. The pleasure, joy, and gaiety of a festival or celebration. 3. began in 1994 at Vasquez Rocks, and the pyrotechnics pyrotechnics (pī'rōtĕk`nĭks, pī'rə–), technology of making and using fireworks. Gunpowder was used in fireworks by the Chinese as early as the 9th cent. display started there in 1995. Last summer, the gathering was held at the Agua Dulce Airport, said Art Brewer, a member of the Agua Dulce Town Council who is chairman of the Fourth of July celebration committee. ``The fireworks over the rocks are stunning. It's absolutely gorgeous,'' said Town Council member Trish Sullivan. ``It is our community's icon, so we felt that it's the best, nicest place to have it,'' she said. ``It's just extremely unfair that we're being denied the chance to hold a community event there,'' Sullivan added. ``Everybody in the community is very disappointed that it's not going back to (Vasquez Rocks). It was very unique and very special at the park,'' Brewer said. ``We held it for two years at the park and it went perfectly well,'' Brewer added. Olene Ewell-White, a regional operations manager See datacenter manager. for the parks department, said the county is trying to be pro-active in preserving the artifacts - such as cave paintings left behind by Tataviam tribes, who lived in the Vasquez Rocks area for thousands of years. The Independence Day celebrations drew thousands of visitors to the park, and that creates worries about trespassers and vandals. ``There were some concerns about the large numbers of people who came into the (park),'' Ewell-White said. ``Once the sun sets and it's dark . . . it's really hard to supervise in that kind of environment,'' she said. ``We're supposed to be protecting the environment there and it's very hard to protect when there are events that bring in large numbers of people,'' Ewell-White said. Forty of the park's acres are off-limits to the public because that's the site of the American-Indian artifacts, said Mike Sharp, the county park ranger assigned to live at Vasquez Rocks. It's not merely the July 4 celebration that has county parks officials concerned about the level of usage at Vasquez Rocks, she added. The annual Easter sunrise service is drawing increasingly large crowds; about 2,500 visitors came out for the event March 30, Ewell-White noted. The park is a popular destination for outdoors enthusiasts and film crews as well. During the 1995-96 fiscal year, Vasquez Rocks drew 55,478 visitors, said Sharp, the live-in ranger. On the average, the park is host to film crews 120 to 200 days per year, he added. The entertainment industry is drawn to Vasquez Rocks not just because of the jagged beauty of its sandstone peaks, but by the bargain-basement film permit rates: $400 per day. But Sharp said the price will rise starting July 1, bringing Vasquez Rocks' daily rate closer to that of other county sites like the Arboretum arboretum: see botanical garden. arboretum Place where trees, shrubs, and sometimes herbaceous plants are cultivated for scientific and educational purposes. An arboretum may be a collection in its own right or a part of a botanical garden. in Arcadia and the Natural History Museum in Exposition Park. CAPTION(S): Photo: Concern for American Indian artifacts at Vasquez Rocks caused officials to reject a July 4 event. Daily News |
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