LIVE: Patch Coverage of Independence Celebration

Union Avenue was lined with chairs, blankets and pop-up tents by 8 a.m. Sunday as residents, business owners and visitors eagerly awaited the .

At the on Union Avenue, pit beef was being set up. At on Juniata Street, firefighters were prepping ladder trucks for participating in the parade.

Volunteers were buzzing around —the primary staging area for floats, bands and parade participants.

I will be all over town Sunday, shooting photos and video. In order to provide live updates, we'll use this forum throughout the day.

After a "communication breakdown" last year during the lead-in to the fireworks show—during which  following a collapse at the parade and was unable to provide updates—I felt it necessary to assist the city staff, volunteers and our readers by providing this forum.

We will be using a CoverItLive chat, imbedded in this article post, to provide the best live coverage during the event.

To chime in—reporting a road closure, incident, really cool sight or anything you think others will care about—just comment directly into the chat in the widget above.

You can also chime in via Twitter by simply using this hashtag: #July4HdG

While you're at it, make sure you're following Patch on Twitter and Facebook.

Please chime in with anything noteworthy you see, and come back here regularly for any updates in exchanging of information.

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NOTE: To encourage participation in the chat window above, comments on this article have been turned off.