JAFFREY — Authorities believe the bomb threat that lead to the cancellation of tonight's firework show was intended to have a local impact.

“I think that it's important that at this stage in the investigation we believe this to be a local incident, designed to have a negative impact at a local level,” Jaffrey Police Chief William Oswalt said at press conference at the Silver Ranch Airport in Jaffrey Friday afternoon to announce the cancellation of today's Annual Jaffrey Festival of Fireworks. “In this particular incident we are confident, based on the information we have now, it is a local product directed for local effect.”

Thursday morning the Jaffrey Select Board, the Jaffrey Chamber of Commerce and the Keene Sentinel received a threatening letter, Oswalt said.

“In those communications, the author indicated a direct threat of violent action that would take place at or near the local airport where the Annual Jaffrey Festival of Fireworks is scheduled to take place this Saturday, August 18th. An investigation was begun immediately. Due to the nature of this threat, I have sought assistance from local, county, state and federal agencies,” Oswalt said. “This is being investigated as a bomb threat directed at the people attending, with the apparent motive of causing disruption of the event and an adverse impact on the Town of Jaffrey.”

The annual fireworks festival has been a fundraising event for the Jaffrey Chamber of Commerce for 23 years.

The event is held at the Silver Ranch Airpark in town, in partnership with the airpark and the Jaffrey-based fireworks company Atlas PyroVision Productions.

“We would like to express our deep regrets that we must cancel this year's annual festival of fireworks. We are all in agreement that it was a very difficult decision to make, but in light of recent national incidents we all believe that the safety of our citizens must be our highest priority and allow for law enforcement officials to complete their investigation,” said Jaffrey Chamber of Commerce co-chair Cathy Furze.

Furze said the Chamber has no plans to reschedule the event. “We are optimist that this will be resolved and the show will go on next year,” Furze said.

Furze and her co-chair Cyndy Burgess acknowledged the cancellation would have a big financial impact on the Chamber but could not say exactly how much.

Public safety was first and foremost in the decision to cancel, they said.

“Impact is big. There is no doubt about it. But you know what, this was far from our minds when we made this decision,” Burgess said. “There is impact for us, for all of us partners involved, but nothing like it would have been if there was some sort of disaster that occurred.”

Harvey Sawyer, owner of the Silver Ranch Airpark and longtime Jaffrey resident, said he hopes the bomb threat perpetrator or perpetrators are quickly found and brought to justice.

“All of us in Jaffrey are deeply saddened by this 11th hour turn of events,” Sawyer said.

Preparations for the show take all year, Furze said.

The airpark alone attracts 30,000 to 35,000 people to the firework festival. Many attendees park in the surrounding area and walk in.

Oswalt declined to elaborate on the threat, but said there appears to be no threat to the airport. “It would seem this facility is not the direct concern.”

He would not comment on details of the letter.

“Those are specifics we are not prepared to discuss,” Oswalt said. “This is still an incident under investigation.”

After the press conference Caroline Hollister, a long-time Jaffrey resident and wife to Clay Hollister, town emergency management director, said the cancellation will have far reaching impact on the community, from the vendors planning to attend and the non-profits who raise funds at the event as well as businesses in town.

“There's great disappointment and we support this activity,” Hollister said of the cancellation.

One local charity, Santa's House, raises a great deal of its money at the event to buy Jaffrey and Rindge children Christmas presents every year, she said.

“But I think about the people that opened those letters and read them. What a blow to the stomach and to have to deal with it,” Hollister said.

Before the festival started 23 years ago, the tradition of holding a fireworks show at the airport goes back more than 60 years, Hollister said.

The investigation is being led by the Jaffrey Police Department with involvement from the N.H. Attorney General's office, the U.S. Attorney, N.H. State Police as well as agents from the FBI, ATF and the Postal Inspector's office, Oswalt said.

Anyone with information that could be relevant to the investigation is asked to contact Jaffrey police at 532-7865, or via the website at www.townofjaffrey/police Ticket refund forms will be available at the Jaffrey Chamber of Commerce office or on its web site at www.jaffreychamber.com.

mpierce@newstote.com