County Illuminated By ‘Light The Lakes’
By S. Alexander Gerould, agerould@post-journal.comArticle Photos
The sky above Chautauqua County was filled with hundreds of colors on Sunday night, as Light the Lakes officially took off.
Spearheaded by Dan Dalpra and the Bemus Bay Pops, the event featured simultaneous fireworks displays at 10:10 p.m. in several communities in the region. According to Dalpra, the displays are aimed at inviting visitors to the entire region, not just individual towns and villages.
''The beauty of this thing ... it's just going to be great for the entire region,'' Dalpra said recently. ''It will be one of the first times where you will have all of these communities working together as one destination, one unit, one reason to come here. Then when you come here, you've got all these different layers and flavors to enjoy.''
Several municipalities and businesses took part in the event, including Findley Lake, Bemus Point, Mayville, Westfield-Barcelona, Lakewood and Midway Park.
''Everything is really coming together just brilliantly,'' Dalpra said recently. ''All the communities have rallied behind this and they've all got their individual events going on.''
At an estimated cost of $10,000, the event was billed as one of the largest in North America and was believed to be visible from space.
Dalpra said the local media enhanced the show, adding the Media One Group radio stations WWSE 93.3 FM and WJTN 1240 AM suspended their station's regular programming and aired music which coincided with the fireworks.
Prior to the show, the City of Jamestown also held its own fireworks show at Bergman Park and a laser light show was held at the Jamestown Savings Bank Ice Arena.
Some drivers traveling on Interstate 86 pulled their vehicles to the side of the highway to catch a glimpse of the display.
In addition to the Bemus Point Pops, Light the Lakes was made possible by the Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce, Chautauqua County Visitors Bureau, the county of Chautauqua Industrial Development Agency, New York State Senator Catharine M. Young and the several host communities. The event was co-sponsored by Media One Group, The Post-Journal and WGRZ TV.
Nicholas L. Dean, reporter for The Post-Journal, contributed to this story.
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JMizzle22
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09-01-08 9:22 PM
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Light The Lakes = Failure. VERY DISAPPOINTED. Mayville resident. walked from the Lakeview/The Docks down to where there were and by the time i got there i caught about 1 minute of fireworks and the 1 minute long grand finale. No way this was seen from space.
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danyay
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09-01-08 1:16 PM
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In Bemus it was great. How do the previous commenter expect to light up the whole lake short of a hydrogen bomb? Of course some were going to be in the distance. Anyway, I didn't quite get the synchronized music, but the fireworks were great. I was surprised that, according to the article, it only cost $10,000.
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bigguy4095
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09-01-08 12:50 PM
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I dont know what you guys are talking about he fire works at lakewood beach were the best i have seen in years and where i was sitting you could see it all over the lake and elsewhere i could see bemus and midway and the tip of cassadaga
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poohbear6792
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09-01-08 11:53 AM
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I was very disappointed in the Light The Lakes last night.I was down at the community park in Lakewood,and we could not see any fireworks.The way it was told that this was supposed to light up the whole lake.I am sure that i am not the only one disappointed.The fireworks at bergman park were better.I think that they should have made it more specific at where they were going to have the fire works for the light the lakes.If it is done again next year,They need to include us here in Jamestown,Because there were some of us that were waiting to see them but did not.Unless we walked out to the end of the docks to see them.
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John70
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09-01-08 10:29 AM
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It was horrible and overrated!!!!!!
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