{"id":389991,"date":"2026-09-04T04:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T04:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/389991\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T04:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T04:50:09","slug":"altamonte-springs-weighs-future-of-red-hot-boom-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/389991\/","title":{"rendered":"Altamonte Springs weighs future of Red Hot & Boom, library"},"content":{"rendered":"

Altamonte Springs weighs future of Red Hot & Boom, library<\/p>\n

\"Gail<\/a>ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\n

Altamonte Springs is talking about ending one of the most popular 4th of July celebrations in Central Florida \u2014 Red Hot & Boom. <\/p>\n

The city manager, Frank Martz, says the event has grown too large and too expensive and should be cut from Altamonte Springs’ $22 million budget for 2027. <\/p>\n

Red Hot & Boom costs the city about $950,000 for everything from fireworks to staffing. 250,000 people attended this past event. <\/p>\n

Forty-three people signed up to speak Thursday night, but the majority were more concerned about closing the Altamonte Springs Library. <\/p>\n

“I never heard such a thing, coming from New York,” said resident Alta Marcelle. “Closing a library? A library? I never heard such a thing.” <\/p>\n

Martz has recommended closing the 66-year-old library building and replacing it with a digital-first, community-based model. <\/p>\n

Carly Jenkins, another resident, shared her perspective on both issues. <\/p>\n

“I don’t go often, but I would like to see it stick around,” she said of the library. “As far as Red Hot & Boom goes, I think we’re all tired of the traffic from it. I’ve never even been to Red Hot & Boom because of how bad the traffic is, so I wouldn’t mind seeing that going.” <\/p>\n

In the end, during what was a first reading, Altamonte Springs commissioners voted to support the budget and millage rate for the next fiscal year. <\/p>\n

Commissioner Jim Turney also offered an amendment to keep the Altamonte Springs Library open until Sept. 30, 2027, and hopefully for years to come. <\/p>\n

A meeting to craft that proposal will take place Oct. 7, while a second reading of the budget will occur Sept. 16 at City Hall. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Altamonte Springs weighs future of Red Hot & Boom, library ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. \u2014 Altamonte Springs is talking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-389991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}