Logan council members praise Freedom Fire, but concerns remain over deficit

LOGAN – Logan City Council members Tuesday night had a lot of praise for Freedom Fire, the July 3rd celebration held in Utah State University’s Romney Stadium. This year marked the third year Freedom Fire has been held in the stadium under a new partnership with Logan City and the Caine College of the Arts at USU.

Councilmember Herm Olsen said he felt this year’s was the best show yet and Tom Jensen sad he thought Freedom Fire was, “incredible.”

Now that the money has been counted and the bills have been paid, for the third straight year the celebration ran a deficit. Logan City Parks and Recreation director Russ Akina said it was a smaller deficit–just over $8,400 compared to $50,000 the first year.

That wasn’t good enough for Logan’s fiscal manager Richard Andersen.

“What we’re seeing financially only, not patriotically-speaking but financially-speaking, is this is getting very expensive. And it’s going to continue in that direction I imagine,” Andersen said. “So we’ll have to look at alternatives at some point in the future.

“I know the group has done a great job but this is staring us in the face and we continue to use Parks and Rec money toward this.”

He said there was a $20,000 contribution from Cache County’s RAPZ Tax this year but both ticket sales and major sponsorships were down.

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