About two-dozen people turned out Monday afternoon to see fireworks at the Pahrump Fall Festival Committee's meeting.

Clara Cook, of Cook's Ice, was joined at the Pahrump Town Annex by residents angry with the committee's decision to go with an out-of-town company to provide ice for the festival.

Cook was upset that the committee opted to get its ice from Las Vegas-based Ready Ice rather than her company, which she claims has been providing ice at the festival more than 20 years.

"You did not call me and say, 'Okay, we're going to do this differently, do you want to make a bid?'" Cook told the committee.

Vendor committee Chairman Tiffany Young said the decision was made after Cook said she wouldn't work the festival because she didn't want to pay the $250 vendor fee.

"We want Pahrump vendors," Young explained. "When we sit down to look at vendors, the first thing we look at is: Are they local, or are they out of town?"

Young said she spoke with Cook May 14, at which time she learned the ice vendor wasn't interested.

Other committee members came to the defense of Young.

"We're trying to save money for everybody and we're trying to include as many people as we can," Publicity Chairman Paula Glidden said, after explaining how in past years, the Fall Festival lost money.

Glidden added that the committee began strictly enforcing vendor's fees to generate money for the town.

Young said Ready Ice does not attend festivals. That company supplies the ice to the committee, which plans to operate a booth manned by festival volunteers.

Ready Ice will sell its ice for $3 per 20-pound bag.

Cook said she could sell the same product for $2 a bag.

In an interview after the meeting, Cook said her husband, Al, started the ice company in 1986 and soon thereafter started supplying ice at what was then called the Pahrump Harvest Festival.

"We just feel that he's paid his dues and it's just not right that they should go out of town when they're always telling people to keep the money in Pahrump, to shop local," Cook said.

Young said the issue would be addressed further at the vendor committee's next scheduled meeting, Sept. 5, though a contract with Ready Ice already has been signed.