Fireworks for sale, for a good cause

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By Krystle S. Morey

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Reine Horner

Granvillians can start summer off with a bang now that fireworks are for sale in the village.
Everything from $2 hand-held sparklers to $199.99 combo packs are for sale. The hot item so far this year is reportedly the “Encore” fountain pack.
“It’s one big fountain,” said Reine Horner, a volunteer at the TNT Company tent. “It lasts anywhere between 3 and 5 minutes and goes up about 17 feet.”
Many of the novelty fireworks for sale sport funky names such as “Tripping Daisies,” “Golden Shower” and heart-shaped “The one to beat.”
Horner said she started selling last week in the Big Lots Parking Lot. “We probably get 150 people a day,” she said, adding that she’s expecting more as the Fourth of July nears.
Horner said her favorite item is the multicolored hand-held sparklers.
“They’re different than the plain old sparklers that I had when I was a kid,” she said.
Fireworks only recently became legal in the state. Last year, legislators OK’d the purchase and use of sparkling fireworks, ground-based or hand-held pyrotechnics with no liftoff and no bang. This includes fountains, smoking devices, confetti-filled party poppers and snappers.

Fireworks are for sale at the TNT tent in the Big Lots Parking Lot through July 5, 2016.
Fireworks are for sale at the TNT tent in the Granville Big Lots Parking Lot through July 5, 2016.

Even if more powerful fireworks are purchased out of state where they’re legal, New York residents can’t legally possess them or set them off.

“People keep asking me about the powerful stuff, like the kind that actually go up in the air, but we don’t carry that because it’s not legal by New York law yet,” she said.
Horner, of Proctor, Vermont, works in shifts with other volunteers. She spends the night near the tent to prevent any thefts.
TNT, an Alabama-based fireworks company, partners with non-profits for fundraisers just before the Fourth of July and again before New Year’s. One hundred percent of proceeds from fireworks sold in Granville go to the renovation of Wilson Castle, a 19th century castle in Proctor, where weddings and other events are hosted.
The tent is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. through July 5.