Some viewing spots changing for downtown fireworks

Some previously popular viewing areas will be without a view for Monday night's Freedom Festival fireworks display, launched from the grassy plaza on May's Island between the Linn County Courthouse and the Veterans Memorial Building.

The new federal courthouse, eight stories high and nearly a full city block long in the 100 block of Seventh Avenue SE, screens the city-owned parking lot across Eighth Avenue, and the county jail and courthouse may block the view from the middle of the Eighth Avenue bridge.

Up until last year - when the fireworks returned to downtown for the first time since the June 2008 flood - the show was launched from a barge moored off the downstream end of the island, but the jail expansion forced the switch.

Lead shooter Paul Myers said he'd like to find a new launch area, but it's not easy.

“There's so many encroachments in the downtown,” Myers said. “Trying to get the governing bodies to agree, you just wanted to point to somewhere and say, ‘That's the shoot spot.' Right now, the one that causes the least argument is the center of the island.”

State, federal and local rules make it tough to locate another downtown site. Myers said he must maintain minimum distances from any federal building, the county jail, and fuel storage tanks at the jail and city police station.

“There's a lot of points downtown we have to factor in,” he said.

“The people we worked with here in town have been very cooperative,” said Assistant Fire Marshal Vance McKinnon, who helps licensed pyrotechnicians plan their shows. “They have those certifications, so they know what to expect.”

Tonight's show is set to start about 9:40 and should run just under 20 minutes long. For more details on the fireworks, show,

CLICK HERE.