Berry Patch spurns county help on fireworks, owner ‘bitter’ over last year

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the Richmond County Tourism and Development Authority “denied” Lee Berry’s application for funding to support his fireworks show. Berry never formally applied for funding, but rather had a conversation with an unnamed Tourism official who told him his event would likely not qualify. The article has been updated to reflect this.

ELLERBE — The owner of The Berry Patch, Lee Berry, said that he would not accept help with funding his fireworks show from the Richmond County Tourism and Development Authority if offered it because he was told by a Tourism representative that he wouldn’t qualify last year.

Board of Commissioners Chair Jeff Smart said at the board’s meeting this week that the county had made informal offers to both The Berry Patch and the City of Hamlet to help them put on fireworks displays this year for the Fourth of July. Since then, multiple Hamlet officials told the Daily Journal that it’s too late to help, saying that the City Council already voted to not hold the event and that their vendor’s deadline had already passed in early April.

Smart said of the failure of this attempt to help Hamlet that, “If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen,” adding, “I was just trying to do something positive.”

Berry, who is now on Tourism’s governing board, told the Daily Journal on Thursday that an unnamed county official suggested that he apply for funds from Tourism again this year, like he did in 2020, because this time it might be more likely that he would be granted some amount of funding. But Berry said he’s still “bitter” from last year when Tourism told him he didn’t qualify, which he said caused him to decide to pay out of pocket to the tune of about $8,000.

A person with knowledge confirmed to the Daily Journal that Berry never formally applied for funding in 2020, and therefore was not formally denied for funding.

He said the Tourism representative he spoke to in 2020 cited the lack of draw from other counties and lack of multi-day stays by participants as the reasons why Berry’s fireworks show wouldn’t qualify, but he argued that because so much had been shut down at the time that he should have been awarded the funding for holding an event intended to break the monotony of the pandemic-induced restrictions.

“I called last year to say, ‘Is there any funding out there to help us with this fireworks display?’ And the comment is: ‘You don’t qualify because you’re not bringing in anybody to stay at a hotel, you’re not bringing in people for multiple days,’” Berry recalled. “You’ve got certain qualifications to meet to get tourism money and I understand that, they don’t need to give it to everybody. My comment was everything else has been cancelled this year, Plaza Jam has been cancelled — seems like there could be some money. [Tourism said] ‘Well, you don’t meet the criteria,’ so I said, ‘Ok, we’re going to fork the money out ourselves.’ And that’s what we did last year.”

“All of a sudden this year I get a call and they want me to apply for Tourism money, that they think they can help me out,” he said mockingly.

When reached for comment Friday, Smart said that if Berry doesn’t want help from Tourism, which operates independently from the Board of Commissioners, then the county would find a different way to help him out.

“I’ll get with Lee and we’ll make it work,” Smart said. “I know Lee very well and I feel like we’ll partner together … whatever kind of show he wants.”

“I know Lee wants what’s best for this county and the Ellerbe area,” Smart added.

Berry said fireworks is a “tradition” in Ellerbe, and that he’s trying to keep that going rather than trying to build up his business. He may have lost money, but he said it was “worth every penny.”

“At the end of the day we didn’t do it to say The Berry Patch did it we did it as a tradition in Ellerbe — that’s what people need to understand that don’t live in Ellerbe: it’s a tradition,” he said. “It’s what people look forward to every year. It’s the smile that you put on the face of the kids and even the old people that’s been doing it for 50 year.”

The fireworks show will most likely be held on July 3, because the 4th falls on a Sunday, at The Berry Patch.