The residents of Fitchburg, and people from surrounding towns, took advantage of the hot, sunny weather to come out in droves to check out the Fourth of July celebrations in the city this weekend, including Civic Days on Friday on Boulder Avenue and the Fourth of July Parade on Saturday on Main Street.
The atmosphere for the Civics Days on Friday evening was particularly daunting, with temperatures in the 90s and the hot sun shining down, but what started out with fear that it would just be too hot for people to want to show up shifted into a crowded scene of revelers up and down Boulder Avenue, checking out the many attractions from live music with bands from the hard-rocking Magnetismo Rock to the more folksy act by Whitney Doucette, to carnival midway games, bouncy houses at Riverside Park, wrestling in an outdoor ring near Viola Tires and a plethora of food trucks offering up a variety of choices.
Mayor Sam Squailia was there, speaking to a steady stream of people from the shade of a tent, offering information to residents. And many organizations had a tent sent up, offering info or contacts on everything from Weston & Sampson engineering, which designed the city’s combined sewage overflow separation project and the Main Street water and sewer upgrades to the Fitchburg Housing Authority and the United Way of North Central Massachusetts.
And popular with the kids, who would you know were in attendance, but Glinda the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch of the West, side by side, getting quizzed at one point by a 5-year-old girl over the specifics of their movies. Unfortunately, they didn’t think to call up a cloud or two to help shade the party-goers.
Fitchburg Fiber and its associated Old Growth Co-op were there, encouraging people to sign up for internet service (which they offer in the downtown area) and new wireless phone service, which is offered through the co-op, and gives people a chance to keep their high-tech payments local, and end the expensive giveaway of your hard-earned dollars to tech giants. And no rumors of them being a data center are not really true, they are more of an internet exchange point, and only use as much energy as a typical house, so any data center fears are unfounded. (But if you go online you can find it listed as a data center, many of which are in the news lately for using massive amounts of energy to power artificial intelligence servers, but no, that hasn’t come to Fitchburg yet.)
Even the Family Cafe had a booth, and the people there pointed out that while the restaurant on Water Street had closed briefly last year, it has been up and running again since November, offering the same traditional breakfasts as well as Vietnamese food, so whether you want eggs and coffee or a stack of pancakes … or pho, matcha or Vietnamese Pistachio Coffee, they’re there for you. Really, it’s not closed anymore, they explained, through waves of hot air and scorching sun.
Vendors sold patriotic gear such as flags, parasols (one of which was taken by the wind, causing the salesperson to scurry through the crowd after it) and she like many of the others were seen toting miniature battery-operated fans, as it was hot, bordering on way too hot. The misting booths set up by the city got a lot of grateful customers, standing under the tent for a bit just to do anything to combat the heat.
But as the night wore on the temperature dipped and the emcee at the live music stage noted that he thought he felt a bit of a breeze, just in time.
The heat was so hot it may have helped to melt some political divides, as seen in the crowd were state Rep. Michael Kushmerek, D-Fitchburg, and Fitchburg City Council President Anthony Zarrella, who confessed to being from opposite sides of the political spectrum but were suffering through the heat together with big smiles on their faces as they discussed all things Fitchburg.
“This is one of the best days of the year in Fitchburg,” said Kushmerek. “It’s just great to see the community come out and enjoy themselves. We’re living in a divided time … and it’s great to just come together and celebrate our country.”
Said Zarrella, It’s important to “remember we’re all working toward the same goal of a better life.”
Zarrella that while the political divide seems wide apart at the current time, and the two opposing sides seem far apart, there may be five things one side wants, and five things the other sides want, and if they talk it over, they realize that there’s one or two points in the middle that are essentially something they both want.
“We can work together on things,” Zarrella said, with an attitude of, “Let’s get it done.”
“We have the debate and the discussions about what we are doing,” said Kushmerek, adding he, too, hopes to reach some political compromises and move things forward.
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