NORTH RIDGEVILLE —Thanks to contributions, including a $1,000 gift, fireworks will brighten the skies Friday night as the city celebrates the Fourth of July holiday.

Earlier this month, city officials feared the annual fireworks show at South Central Park might be canceled if enough donations didn’t come in. The show is provided by American Fireworks Co., one of the country’s major fireworks suppliers.

“We just barely made it to our $10,000 goal,” North Ridgeville firefighter Robert Becker said Tuesday.

While some local businesses and merchants scaled back their donations or didn’t donate at all because of the economy, a number of good-sized contributions came in recently, including the $1,000 donation from a local businessman. Becker declined to identify any of the givers.

“It takes all of them together to make the goal,” he said. “Some were larger than others. Times are tight, but they stepped up again this year and put us right at $10,000.”

The city’s fireworks were set off for years by the city’s firefighters until injury worries and insurance and liability issues led to the decision to have displays done exclusively by American Fireworks Co.

The finale of this weekend’s fireworks show will be dedicated to Tom Schultz, the city’s longtime animal control officer, who helped stage Fourth of July, First Night (New Year’s Eve) and Corn Festival fireworks shows for years and died in early 2009.

“American is donating the finale of the show in his honor,” Becker said. “I don’t want to give anything away, but you’ll know the part that’s for him.”

Becker hopes to gather some family members, including one of Schultz’s sons, Tom Schultz III, a captain with the North Ridgeville Fire Department, and a daughter who works as a dispatcher with the North Ridgeville Police Department, to help ignite fireworks.

Tom Schultz was a licensed pyrotechnician, as is his son.

A city game warden with the police force before becoming the humane officer, Schultz was known for his compassion with animals he trapped, often keeping and raising them at home.

Contact Steve Fogarty at 329-7146 or sfogarty@chroniclet.com.

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