News : 2012 Boomtown tentatively set for August; Junior Pyros fill the sky over Bar-Y

Tayten Freidhof, Jessolyn Blackert and Mitchell Anderson built this 1,000-shell fireworks display.

The familiar echoes of fireworks from the Bar-Y farm echoed across Vinton Saturday evening as the Iowa Pyrotechnic Association members held their last meeting of the year at Chuck Yedlik's place.

The group discussed this year's Boomtown, and tentatively set the last weekend in August of 2012 for next year's Boomtown. They held a short business meeting and then got down to the business they do best: Building and setting up fireworks.

The first big display of the evening was the work of three of the youngest participants. Tayten Freidhof, Jessolyn Blackert and Mitchell Anderson, supervised by IPA member Gary Peiffer, created a display featuring more than 1,000 separate rockets, strobes, fountains and other fireworks. The IPA and Peiffer donated the items for the display. Many of the youngsters are also learning to build their own fireworks. During the 2011 Boomtown, the Friday night events included a show put together by the Junior Pyros. They plan another display for 2012.

Several IPA members also made their own shells; some of them have just taken up the hobby of building fireworks and were nervously awaiting their turn to see if their projects lit up the sky like they hoped.

A video of the 2011 Boomtown was played for the IPA members on Saturday in one of Yedlik's buildings; the group is trying to make plans for a private showing at the Palace.