Thousands of people are expected to pack into Silver Beach County Park, Tiscornia Park and Jean Klock Park on Wednesday for the city of St. Joseph’s July 4th fireworks show. St. Joseph Deputy Public Safety Director Steve Neubecker says there will be parking restrictions in place.
“We’re asking people to park above the hill,” Neubecker tells WSJM News. “Downtown is going to crowd up early, there’s going to be plenty of parking in the downtown area and in the neighborhoods, and we’re trying to limit the traffic down at the beach area.”
After the fireworks end, traffic north of the St. Joseph River will be detoured to only go north on M-63 and then east on Klock Road. St. Joseph officials are telling people going that way to not head to Main Street in Benton Harbor and try to head back to downtown St. Joseph. People leaving Silver Beach will be sent south on Lake Boulevard to Lakeshore Drive. The Blossomland and Bicentennial Bridges will also be closed from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Public Safety is warning people to expect long delays.
“It’s definitely a challenge. We have great support with the Michigan State Police, the Berrien County Sheriff’s Department, the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force, and we’ll have every officer and reserve officer working that day to keep the community safe,” he said.
Neubecker told us they had downtown cleared out in an hour last year, but they’re not expecting to be that fortunate this year.
