By Jen Horton
posted Jul 7, 2008 - 6:06:02pm
West Volusia has something special to celebrate for Independence Day 2008: freedom from crime and serious accidents related to holiday revelry.
All was quiet in West Volusia July 4, according to the DeLand Police Department, Orange City Police Department, Lake Helen Police Department and Volusia County Sheriff's Office.
"It was pretty boring," DeLand Sgt. John Anderson said.
Anderson said the department does occasionally see a greater instance of fights and domestic violence on party holidays, such as the Fourth. Also on July 4, complaints about firework are to be expected.
Not so this year.
"This year, we didn't hear it," he said. "It was pretty tame."
Lake Helen threw a big party for the Fourth, complete with a parade, rodeo, a festival and fireworks.
Lt. Mike Walker said everything went well; there wasn't anything to report.
"It was wonderful. It was peaceful," Walker said. "We had a bunch of people — probably the best year we've had."
Lake Helen was extra-busy because the multi-city Freedom Festival was cancelled due to lack of funds. Lake Helen had the only municipal fireworks display in West Volusia on Friday. Orange City scheduled its fireworks on Saturday night.
Pat Baskoff, Orange City records supervisor, said there were fewer calls than normal. She attributed a lot of that to a ban on private fireworks.
"We used to have a lot of fireworks problems," she said. "Since basically everything has been outlawed, we didn't have as many calls."
She also said she didn't see anything out of the ordinary on the Orange City incident logs.
"It was pretty quiet," Baskoff said.
Brandon Haught, public-information officer for the Volusia County Sheriff's Department, reported a similar weekend.
"I didn't see anything," Haught said.
VCSO statistics
Brandon Haught of the Volusia County Sheriff's Office provided event summaries for July 4 in the years 2006, 2007 and 2008.
According to the reports, the 2008 holiday, which fell on a Friday, featured 15 percent fewer calls for help from the Sheriff's Office.
2006: July 4th was on a Tuesday.
209 total incidents.
Daily average for incidents in 2006 was 104.5
2007: July 4th was on a Wednesday
253 total incidents
Daily average for incidents in 2007 was 126.5
2008: July 4th was on a Friday
215 total incidents
Daily average for incidents in 2007 was 107.5
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