Dorney Park's annual Fourth of July fireworks display will go on as planned, however, South Whitehall zoners have rejected the park's request to have nightly shows from June 29 to Aug. 25.

Meeting June 6 and again on June 10, zoners heard arguments from Dorney Park representatives and residents living near the park before reaching a unanimous decision.

According to Jason McClure, vice president and general manager of Dorney Park, the nightly fireworks shows would have been part of Summer Nights of Celebration, the amusement park's marketing effort for the year, in place of having a "capital attraction," such as a new ride.

McClure said, at the June 6 meeting, the nightly shows would be significantly shorter and less noisy than Dorney's regular shows on Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day.

"The holiday shows are community celebrations… and we plan those shows not just for guests at the park, but it's also for the community at large," McClure said. "The nightly shows are just for the guests. They're smaller, they're lower in the sky and we took out the loud noises. It's a five-minute show to get guests to stick around a little later."

McClure also said this type of nightly fireworks program has been successfully implemented in several of Dorney's sister parks.

"I don't think you can say what we're proposing tonight is a nuisance," Erich Schock, Dorney's legal representative, said.

However, the meeting room filled to its exterior hallways with Dorney's closest neighbors who thought otherwise.

Residents said they were concerned about safety, noise levels, the environment, terrified house pets and the dangers of having explosives within such close proximity to their homes.

Robert Forney lives across the street from Dorney Park.

Forney wanted to know about the decibel levels and amount of smoke that would be generated from the nightly fireworks program, but McClure did not have any of that data handy.

"Can you guarantee that none of the [fireworks] will leave the park's boundaries and go out to the neighborhood?" Forney asked McClure.

McClure replied the show would be designed to prevent such debris and that he has never received any complaints about the much larger holiday shows.

Resident Janine Forney made an impassioned plea on behalf of her two cats who are terrified by the vibration and noise emitted by fireworks displays.

"There are other people who have little infants and pets and you cannot get them out from under the bed for two hours after [the fireworks] go off," Forney said. "I'm not willing to give up every night this summer for 60 days straight to get my cats out from under the bed. They're terrified and it's not right.

Gary Ward of Cetronia said he was very concerned about the nightly fireworks program because of how close his property is to Dorney's fireworks storage bunker.

He wanted to know the safety record of Zambelli Fireworks, which has worked with Dorney for 17 years.

Michael Richards, vice president of sales and operations for Zambelli, said the storage bunker for Dorney's fireworks meets proper regulations for the amount of explosive weight stored.

"I'm not really that worried about the [storage bunker]. I'm worried about fireworks being transported and being very close to my property," Ward replied. "That would be like living near Trojan Powder Company when they used to store fireworks there. I have a big issue with that and I hope the board considers that."

Cetronia resident Allen Howells asked how nightly fireworks would impact local wildlife and wanted to know if there had been an environmental study on the effects of fireworks on indigenous creatures and their habitats.

McClure replied that, to his knowledge, no research of that nature had been conducted.

"These are our homes," said Devora Minnifield, who lives a block away from Dorney. "We understand it's entertainment; it's a business, but we live here 365 days a year."