Jones Beach fireworks will go on though sponsor has dropped out, official says

The Independence Day fireworks at Wantagh's Jones Beach State Park will be held as usual this summer, though a new sponsor must be found because Sterling National Bank has dropped out, the state parks department said Friday.

"We are definitely going to have the program," George Gorman, the Long Island regional director of the state Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation, told the Long Island State Parks Commission, which was meeting at Bethpage State Park.

"We are actively seeking a sponsor," Gorman said,  adding that the bank’s contribution of $65,000 per show covered a significant portion of the fireworks cost. 

Sterling Bank officials had no immediate comment.

Gorman had persuaded the Astoria Financial Corp. to sponsor the fireworks, an agreement that continued once that bank joined Sterling National Bank. He also landed Bethpage Federal Credit Union to fund the park’s annual Memorial Day air show. 

The Fourth of July event is one of the oceanfront park's most popular, with families often arriving long before the fireworks, which last summer were set off by Millington, New Jersey-based Garden State Fireworks from a barge in the Atlantic south of Jones Beach's Central Mall.

Jones Beach State Park saw about 80% capacity during the day last July Fourth, Gorman told Newsday at the time, and the crowd reached its 200,000 capacity for the nighttime fireworks.

Independence Day fireworks returned to Jones Beach in 2015 after a five-year absence. The event had run annually for 15 years but was canceled in 2010 because budget constraints had thinned the ranks of park police officers.