City officials are banking on the COVID-19 virus being a thing of the past in two months and are expecting the city’s annual July 4 fireworks display to go on as scheduled.

“I’m optimistic we’ll still have the fireworks show,” South Ward Alderman Alex Monsour said.

Monsour is over the city’s recreation department, which is responsible for the annual show that draws between 10,000 and 12,000 people to the downtown area.

He said, however, the board will delay paying fireworks contractor Pyroman the $45,000 bill for the annual summer show. An item to pay the show’s cost was on the agenda for Monday’s board meeting and later pulled by Monsour.

“We’re just looking out for the budget and any shortfalls we may be having because we have to look out for every dollar bill we’ve got,” he said.

He said he contacted Pyroman representatives about the decision to delay paying for the show.

“I just made the decision on not spending the $45,000 right now until we get a better picture of where we’re at (financially) because you never know,” Monsour said. “We’ll just look at it a little bit later down the line.”