Plymouth Township Treasurer places angry call and berates a 911 operator over fireworks traffic

PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WXYZ) - When traffic at the Plymouth fireworks did not move fast enough, the township treasurer lost his cool, called central dispatch and berated a 911 operator.

The traffic at Beck and Powell Roads came to a standstill when over 400 vehicles tried to leave the fireworks at once.

When the people who paid to put on the show had to sit in traffic, it enraged Township Treasurer Ron Edwards so much that he called central dispatch and berated the 911 dispatcher.

“It was an embarrassment to me,” said Ron Edwards.

He said he is not embarrassed by the phone call, but that the donors had to wait in traffic for over a half hour.

“We’ve always had this cleared out, it didn’t occur. And I was a little upset at it,” said Edwards.

Edwards said that at the time he had been up and working for hours. He made a calm phone call prior to the angry rant, but exploded when nothing came of it.

“I’m a person that gets sometimes very excited. I’m a man of my word. And when I promise people I expect things to happen. They expect me to deliver. I expect this to happen. Uh, it didn’t happen,” said Edwards.

Edwards had promised the 32 corporate entities who donated all of the money for the township fireworks and holiday picnic a quick exit from the show.

He says he doesn’t intend to apologize to anyone for losing his cool because the police department should have routed traffic better.

Edwards tells Action News the donors have put on the fireworks for the past three years and without their money, Plymouth Township has no fireworks.

A spokesperson from the police department said traffic moved just as it has every year and that at the same time the fireworks let out, there was a personal injury accident near the parking lots that probably tied up traffic.