The first week of fireworks season has annually seen the Eagle Flight Fireworks stand go up on the east side of Highway 63, off Forsee Road. And it’s usually a hot business – literally.

But this year the fireworks stand has been replaced – by a new 2,880 square-foot building for Ronnie Basinger and his fireworks crew.

Basinger had the concrete poured last fall, and had George and Wanda Cunningham put the building up early in the year. Basinger has much of the spring preparing for fireworks season.

“George does an outstanding job on these,” Basinger said. “It was my idea for the ceiling, but Wanda helped make it happen.”

The ceiling is a full-size US flag – without all of its stars, yet.

“We have been setting up fireworks displays and don’t have all of the stars up yet, but they will get done,” Basinger said. When asked if he only put the Missouri star on the ceiling, Basinger said it wasn’t a bad idea.

“The State of Missouri has been pretty good to the small fireworks dealers,” Basinger said, “a number of other states are just shutting us down.” The Basinger family has been hosting a fireworks stand for as long as either Ronnie or his wife Sharon can remember, but they agree that the family started their own fireworks stand in 2003. Since those early beginnings, Eagle Flight Fireworks has grown and grown…..and grown again.

by Bruce Wallace

~ There’s more to this story on the front page of today’s Journal ~