Bombs will be bursting in air over Brookhaven Friday night, asthe Brookhaven 150th Celebration Steering Committee and the Stateof Mississippi Juvenile Rehabilitation Facility will team up toprovide the first city-sponsored fireworks show in the city’shistory.

“If we’ve ever had one, I don’t remember it, and I’ve been herequite a while,” said steering committee chairwoman Rita Rich.”People have always been looking for a fireworks show and have hadto travel out of town. This year, no one has to travel – there willbe fireworks right here in little ole Brookhaven.”

Gates to the show will open at 8:15 p.m. Friday night at therehabilitation center on Brookman Drive Extension. The fireworksdisplay will begin shortly after 8:30 p.m. when the skydarkens.

Admission to the event is free, and the steering committee isasking that all attendees wear their favorite Brookhaven or LincolnCounty hometown T-shirt. Lawn chairs and mosquito spray arerecommended, as the display is scheduled to last approximately onehour.

Rich said the fireworks show is the only July-themed eventplanned for the yearlong sesquicentennial celebration, and thecommittee is deeply committed to making the show worthy of thewhole month. Rich said approximately $2,000 have been invested inthe “all-American” event.

“When you think of the Fourth of July, you think of fireworks,”she said. “You think about when the Star-Spangled Banner waswritten, with the bombs bursting in air. That’s why we wanted to doa fireworks show especially.”

Rich said the committee decided to go all-out on the fireworksshow because of the multiple needs it meets. Fireworks displaysplease both children and adults, she said, and the event will honorthe nation’s 232nd birthday as well as Brookhaven’s 150th. Thedisplay will also honor America’s servicemen at home and around theworld, and will even serve as a distraction from every-daylife.

“At this time, when gas prices, utilities and groceries are sohigh, everyone needs something that will give them some kind ofentertainment; something different to get their minds offeverything else,” Rich said.

Rich said the fireworks team should have no difficulty ingetting people’s attention. Friends of the Juvenile RehabilitationFacility, facility-related volunteers who put on a similar displayevery New Year, has experience.

“All of us that shoot have pretty much done it all our life,”said FJRF Vice President and facility systems manager MelissaHester.

Hester said FJRF would fire well over 100 shells during thedisplay.