The third annual lakefront fireworks extravaganza is on.

And the Town of Chesterton is ponying up for the celebration once again.

At its meeting Monday night, the Town Council voted 4-0 to contribute $2,500 in cash to help fund the event and $2,500 in in-kind support, at the request of Chesterton/Duneland Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Heather Ennis.

The council made the same contribution in 2010.

Ennis said that the extravaganza is scheduled for July 1 and will be held—as usual—at Indiana Dunes State Park.

In other business, Fire Chief Mike Orlich made a full report of his department’s recent activities:

•A car wash on Saturday, May 14—supplemented by donations from the members of Chesterton Firefighters Local 4600 of the International Association of Firefighters—raised $1,000 for the Hoosier Burn Camp, enough to send one child recovering from burn injuries to the week-long camp in White County.

•At a child car-seat clinic on Saturday, May 21, eight old, expired, or otherwise unusable car-seats were replaced and a ninth provided to a family unable to afford one. Several Chesterton firefighters and police officers completed training to become certified car-seat technicians.

•In the spirit of the Town of Chesterton’s employee wellness program, 19 of the department’s 29 career and volunteer firefighters participated in a voluntary fitness challenge. Those 19 lost a total of 172.8 pounds and an average of 7.68 percent body fat and are now working to maintain their achievements.

•Local 4600 recently hosted a lunch for a municipal employees. Sixty attended, Orlich said, “and it seemed to go over really well.”

Clerk-Treasurer Gayle Polakowski, for her part, expressed her gratitude to Local 4600 and all the town’s firefighters for their hard work in sprucing up the front of town hall. They planted flowers—even in the back, where town hall staff parks—laid new brick pavers, and moved the heavy concrete bench and ash tray to their new locations. “They did a real nice job,” Polakowski said.

Member Jim Ton, R-1st, took a moment at the end of the meeting to voice the council’s “sympathy and condolences” to the people of Joplin, Mo., hit hard overnight Sunday by a tornado. “Such loss, such a terrible thing, over 100 people gone and climbing,” he said. “What we had (in August 2009) was minuscule. This just exposes the fact that everyone needs to have an emergency plan. It could happen anytime, anywhere.”