Increasing security and rescheduling events kept Havre de Grace?s Fourth of July carnival on Tuesday free of the violence that beset last year?s celebration, organizers said.
After allegedly gang-related grudges at the Fourth of July carnival escalated into a small-scale riot on July 2, 2006, the city contemplated whether the evening of parades, fireworks and festivities in Tydings Park had outgrown police officers? ability to maintain order.
“It has worked well for 50 years, and I don?t see how a handful of people ? and it was really a handful ? should stop that from happening,” said Carolyn Narvell, events coordinator for the celebration.
The City Council agonized for months over whether to move the carnival to another location, scale it down or cancel it. Council members decided in October to spread out the Independence Day events ? holding the parade Saturday, then ending the carnival with fireworks Tuesday. And instead of three or four officers patrolling the crowd, the city scheduled 30 for the final night, Narvell said.
“Because of what happened last year, they requested manpower assistance from us, and that?s what we?ve given them,” said Sgt. Christina Presberry, spokeswoman for the Harford County Sheriff?s Office.
Deputies from the sheriff?s special operations division, including officers on traffic control and members of the gang-suppression unit, were scheduled to be on hand for the last night of the carnival, Presberry said.
Mayor Wayne Dougherty said Havre de Grace police had tow trucks ready to move illegally parked cars and keep roads clear for emergency vehicles.
As of Tuesday, only one arrest had been made at the carnival ? after a domestic dispute that ended with one person taken into custody, said Maj. John Van Gilder of the Havre de Grace police. But officers were waiting on what might happen during or after the fireworks, he said.
“We?re kind of in the bottom of the eighth,” Van Gilder said Tuesday afternoon.
Attendance at the parade Saturday was down from previous years, and two fireworks shows in Cecil County on Tuesday night threatened to draw crowds away from Havre de Grace. But Narvell said revenues were comparable to last year?s. The fireworks and parade are paid for with money from the carnival, so they depend on its success.
“Tonight is the make-or-break point,” Narvell said Tuesday.
