St. George opts for smaller New Year’s celebration for 150 year birthday bash

ST. GEORGE – There will be no large scale celebration for New Year’s Eve sponsored by the city of St. George this year. Instead, funds and manpower traditionally dedicated to what would have been the city’s year-ending bash have been allocated to a different kind of celebration set two weeks after New Year’s Day.

From Jan. 11 to Jan. 17, St. George Heritage Days will be taking place.

“Instead of five hours of celebration, we’ll have a week’s worth,” said Marc Mortensen, the assistant to the city manager of St. George.

Mortensen remarked that only a day’s worth of events marked the city’s founding before, but that would be different for the city’s sesquicentennial.

With funds being taken from the usual “Twilight to Midnight” festivities, Mortensen added that there will be no fireworks to mark the year’s end either. Such a display is being saved for the night of Jan. 17, the day that officially marks the 150 year anniversary of St. George’s settlement.

The city will still be sponsoring a New Year’s Eve swing dance at the Leisure Services building at 86 S. Main St. A fee will be charged to enter the event, though the exact amount is yet to be determined, Mortensen said.

[email protected]

Copyright 2011 St. George News. This material may not be published or rewritten without written consent.

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

12 Comments

  • Sandra December 1, 2011 at 8:42 pm

    It’s always gotta be about ‘heritage’….lots of families, from every ethnicity, enjoyed First Night. This is a mistake. One more event to divide rather than unify. Why couldn’t it be called something with the idea of looking to the future…rather than another history lesson.

  • Big Bill December 3, 2011 at 10:02 pm

    Please take Cinco de Mayo south of the border. Let us celebrate our heritage in peace.

  • urbanboy December 3, 2011 at 11:03 pm

    WHAT!?!? NO FIREWORKS???? Why doesn’t the city just throw the big heritage “bash” on new years to celebrate both that and STG’s 150th?! This sucks, we’ll be the only city in America or the world not having fireworks or a party. LAME!! guess we’ll go to Vegas!

  • Big @$$ Bob December 4, 2011 at 9:34 pm

    I’m annoyed that a town grows so fast from an itty bitty quaint, typical everybody-knows-your-name town to getting recognized as a national metropolitan area within a couple some odd decades, what town am I referring to? You guessed it…..Saint George. Now, my point here is, when a city reaches metro status, ching ching, the federal government forks in $$$ that the particular town didn’t get before growing to metro status for infrustucture such as transit, roads, highways, etc.. We once recieved rural assistance (not as much funding) like all other southern Utah towns, but we no longer qualified once we reached metro stat. So, my question is, why is metropolitan St. George always short money? Just where does all the federal $$$ go? Is it artsy toys like statues downtown? the controversial carousel? I’m appalled how items like public transportation (SunTran), streets, the Care and Share (only community homeless shelter), city staff, even FIREWORKS FOR NEW YEARS, can’t be funded by Dixie MPO?! Suntran desperately needs expansion. the streets that aren’t owned by the state are clearly defined by horrendous, worn pavement and the city staff are having wages cut? Can STG News do an indepth investigation on how much and where this so called Dixie Metropolitan planning moneyreally goes?

  • sam December 5, 2011 at 10:37 pm

    I don’t know why they can’t do fireworks. they are just lame and boring, not that its that much fun to began with. but i guess smaller town always do it smaller and don’t party to much especially since its more Conservative. good thing vegas is close.

  • -Mike- December 5, 2011 at 11:57 pm

    I agree that this is a bad idea, but it’s giving me reason to rant about something else…

    Am I the only one who thinks that fireworks are a huge waste of taxpayer money? Do you really need to see the same aerial explosions at every event to make it exciting? Now, I’m not saying that this whole “Heritage Days” thing is a great idea, but at least they’ll do something with the money besides burn it all with a 15 minute firework display.

    I’m sure the kids like watching fireworks, but would they really notice if they weren’t there? Most people don’t even dare to go outside long enough to watch the fireworks.

    So let’s have our annual First Night party, minus the fireworks, and use the firework money to fund whatever dinky Heritage Festival that will turn out to be a disappointment, anyway. Everybody just bring an aerosol can to First Night and throw it in the fire barrels at midnight… we’ll get the same effect. Just don’t forget your safety glasses.

  • Firefly December 7, 2011 at 9:56 am

    Looks like more celebratory $$$ leaving St.George this New Years. Even Mesquite sounds better, if not Las Vegas. What a sad commentary…

  • StGeorgeRes January 1, 2012 at 12:22 am

    The Sun Trans system could use expansion, it’s true. According to Sun Trans, to justify the expense, they need a petition with enough signatures indicating interest in use of the service. The cost of adding a single bus is $300,000. The city has to match the amount received in federal dollars.

    I think it would be nice to put the petition together with a map of proposed routes. Bloomington/Bloomington Hills and Ivins could use an extension of services, and maybe a line that serves Sun River would be convenient for the senior community there.

    • Omari December 31, 2012 at 6:13 pm

      But the city spent 300K on a damn carousel instead of a much needed bus! Yup, St George leaders for ya!

  • disappointed December 27, 2012 at 8:49 pm

    Well this just sucks!!! I am so disappointed. We have been planning this trip for awhile now and have family meeting us to enjoy First Night in St. George. Had I read this before now we would have gone to SLC, Provo, Mesquite….or any place other than this. Now, it’s too late to cancel our plans. Wow….what a way to start the new year….sitting in a friggen motel room with nothing to do. Happy New Year St George.

  • bekkah December 31, 2012 at 8:27 pm

    That is so stupid!! Everyone wants fireworks to celebrate the beginning of a new year! St. George is getting more retarded by the day!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.