Council keeps Escalon Parks Foundation’s fireworks booth for 2025, agrees to revisit lottery in August

The Escalon City Council voted to maintain the current fireworks-booth allocation for 2025 and to revisit the city’s lottery system in August 2025 after hearing from the Escalon Parks Foundation and local nonprofits.

Staff briefed the council on the existing process, which is codified in the municipal code and caps the number of fireworks booths within the city at four. The ordinance previously allocated one booth to the city recreation program and three via lottery to local nonprofits; over time the booth designated for recreation has been staffed by the Escalon Parks Foundation, which requested to operate the booth again in 2025 and said it needs the revenue to reach a fundraising goal for a skate-park project.

Mr. Leggero, representing the Escalon Parks Foundation, said the foundation raises roughly $10,000 annually through the booth and currently has about $115,000 toward a $125,000 fundraising goal for skate-park features. He asked to continue operating the booth for one more year and, if the council changes the allocation, to defer the change until 2026 so the foundation has one more season to fundraise.

Staff told the council the city’s ordinance limits booths to four and that the California state fire marshal does not set a jurisdictional limit. Staff also said a change to increase the number of booths would require a municipal code amendment and that the city typically begins the application process in March.

Council members debated whether to add a fifth booth to spread proceeds among additional nonprofits. Several council members said adding a fifth booth would split a finite amount of public spending and could reduce proceeds for groups close to their fundraising goals. Council member Jeremy Ingle (motion maker) proposed leaving the lottery system unchanged for 2025 and ensuring the Parks Foundation retains one of the four booths this year; the motion included a friendly amendment to revisit the policy in August 2025 so the council could review actual applications and receipts from the season. The motion passed with no recorded opposition.

Provenance: Staff introduced the municipal-code item and the Parks Foundation’s request (staff report and Mr. Leggero’s remarks). Council debated notice and the code requirement to cap booths at four; a motion preserving the current arrangement for 2025 with a scheduled review in August 2025 was approved.