Lydia Bergman, 9, leans on her father, Keenan Edmonds, Lawrence, as he and Kasey Shepard, Lawrence, watch last year's fireworks show from the top of the levee in North Lawrence.

Lawrence Jaycees plan to pump up this year’s Fourth of July fireworks display with more money, more power, more music and more time dedicated to the display.

A $5,000 donation from Emprise Bank, in addition to the city of Lawrence’s pledge of $4,000, has allowed the group to buy more and larger fireworks shells and extend the show to nearly an hour, said Gary Saathoff, the club’s president.

The 2004 show at Burcham Park, Second and Indiana streets, ran on a budget of $5,000 and lasted about 30 minutes.

This year, instead of shooting more of the $5, three-inch shells, the group has invested in several six- and eight-inch shells, which run between $300 and $500 each, Saathoff said.

“That one shell will translate into 25 smaller shells,” he said.

The Jaycees are picking up the costs of insurance for the park and paying the live bands: Prairie Acre, which will play at 6 p.m., and the Alferd Packer Memorial String Band, which will play from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

The Jaycees could afford only a disc jockey for last year’s show, Saathoff said.

The Lawrence Jaycees are part of a shrinking group that still produces hand-fire fireworks shows, in which organizers light shells by hand with road flares.

Larger markets are moving toward electronically staged shows. But those displays cost, at a minimum, $20,000, Saathoff said.

“We just don’t have that kind of money,” he said.

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