By Dan King

Committee members will have a little extra help in funding Whitehall’s summer music and fireworks series.

Heritage Director Carol Greenough reported that this year the event received more than double the funding from the Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council (LARAC) than it received in 2014.

For an arts or music festival to receive funding from LARAC, applications must be in the September prior to the event, so Greenough submitted the application last September. She recently received word that this year’s event would be awarded $2,900. It received $1,400 from LARAC a year ago.

When Greenough was asked by Town Supervisor George Armstrong how much of the total costs the money will cover, she said about half.

“The $2,900 covers about half of the money,” she said. “That’s why we go knocking on doors.”

The festival also receives $1,500 from the town. Greenough said that half of the money that the town gives the festival goes toward music, the other half toward fireworks. The remaining funds are raised by donations, she said.

“We have to ask businesses and people in the community for donations,” she added. “Hopefully we’ll have some money left over this year that we can put toward next year.”

One of the largest expenses for the festival is the fireworks shows, but Greenough said that it is also the primary reason many people come to the festival.

“Fireworks are so popular and draw so many people that you can’t not have them,” she said.

Greenough added that the festival will continue to use the same firework provider, because of a variety of reasons, namely the fact that the provider has a set price for the Town of Whitehall.

“The Alonso family from Mechanicville has done it since the beginning and have never changed their prices for Whitehall, $3,650 per year, that’s all.” she said. “Nearly every year someone tells me that the fireworks were even better than the previous year.”

She said this year’s fireworks will stop sometime in August, due to bugs and weather.