No one is exactly sure when it happened, but at some point, the chamber of commerce took over all the planning and organizing for the annual Fourth of July celebration. Now that is changing.

Chamber Executive Director Tracey Martin said the chamber board at its July 14 meeting decided to relinquish control of the planning and organizing of the events and games to the community.

The chamber will still handle the royalty fundraiser, fireworks, parade, and organization and placement of vendor booths, she said. The royalty competition, which sells raffle tickets for a July 4 prize drawing, is the chamber’s biggest moneymaker of the year.

The street races, events, logging show and all the activities that fill the holiday week take a lot of time and sponsors.

“The Fourth of July is a true community event, and it needs to be organized by the community,” Martin explained. “This is a good chance for the chamber to step away and let the community take control of the biggest event of the year.”

Martin went on to explain that planning for the annual event is especially taxing for the chamber, because planning begins in January each year and adds additional work to an already substantial load for the director.

“It really is a lot to deal with. The chamber is supposed to support businesses and be an entity that advocates for businesses at the local, state and even the federal levels. It’s not supposed to be an event planning service,” Martin remarked.

“I honestly think that is a reason why Wrangell has gone through so many executive directors in the chamber. Because it’s just too much for one person to handle along with everything else.”

Martin cited concerns that the way things had been done for the Fourth could leave the door open to the possibility of certain Fourth of July events being forgotten or not receiving enough attention, possibly dropping from the events list due to lack of sponsor and/or chairpersons.

“With what we have decided, the community can step up and form a committee, and the committee can coordinate everything. That way, everyone has a more equal say,” she said.

“This way, each event is independent, and the chairperson can really feel a sense of individuality while running an event that contributes to the event. It gives the community more of a sense of ownership.”

Martin said the chamber is also relinquishing control of the annual pumpkin patch event that is held in October.

“The chamber has decided to pass that on and open it up to any interested groups that might want to do it,” she said. “By doing this, the chamber can get back to focusing on things like helping local businesses and bringing in more tourism dollars to help the local economy.”

Martin clarified that the chamber would continue to support businesses and individuals in various capacities for the Fourth of July celebration.

“We will gladly help different groups that might need to store items for their event and things like that,” she said.

“And everything is well organized, so it should be a smooth transition."

Hopefully, Martin said, the volunteers who chaired events this year will continue to be involved.