Wellsburg carries on New Year’s tradition

A BIG NIGHT AHEAD — From left, Mayor Dan Dudley and city personnel Brandon Yost and Kevin Greene stand below the lighted ball that will be dropped at midnight Tuesday as part of the city's New Year's Eve Pajama Jam. -- Warren Scott
WELLSBURG — While more than 1 million people are expected to converge on New York City’s Times Square for the city’s New Year’s Eve celebration, Wellsburg will be ringing in 2025 with its own, more modest event but also with the dropping of a lighted ball at midnight.
Mayor Dan Dudley said city crews have been busy preparing the Town Square for the New Year’s Eve Pajama Jam, which will be held from 10 p.m. Tuesday to 12:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Brandon Yost and Kevin Greene, members of the city’s wastewater department, have raised the 5 feet wide sphere to the top of a pole across from City Hall and have tested the air cannon used to fire T-shirts commemorating the event into the hands of eager attendees.
Yost noted they had to rebuild the long tube through which the shirts are propelled and soon will be setting up the lighted display on which the years ‘2024’ and ‘2025’ will be displayed.
Both the sign and the pole from which the ball is dropped were furnished by Merco Marine, a local business.
Yost said they will meet with disc jockeys Music Done Knicely, who will be providing music for the event, to time the dropping of the ball and switching of lights from those outlining 2024 to those strung along the numbers for 2025.
Greene noted the sign had begun as two, with each of the two years posted at each side of City Hall, but they since have been merged, resulting in a display that is about 10 feet wide and 15 feet tall.
A fireworks display, supported with city funds approved by Wellsburg Council, will follow the countdown at midnight.
Controlled by an electric winch, the ball’s descent takes about 45 seconds, noted Yost.
He was among Brooke High School vocational students who built the ball in 2008. About 5 feet in diameter, it’s been decorated with about 400 feet of Christmas lights that have been replaced periodically through the years.
Not the first ball used for the occasion, its predecessors have included one shaped like an apple as a nod to the Wellsburg Applefest held at and near the square each year.
Former Mayor Ernie Jack recalls the New Year’s Eve celebration dating to the city’s bicentennial celebration around 1991.
In recent years, Dudley has dubbed it the Pajama Jam and invited attendees to wear sleepwear.
He said that was inspired by the participation one year of a family who had attended a wedding earlier that day and upon learning they could still make the New Year’s Eve event, showed up in warm pajamas.
City Collector-Treasurer Mary Ann Habbit said attendance has fluctuated through the years depending on the weather, but the event typically draws 50 to 75 people.
“Last year, we had a lot of people,” she said while noting that many residents who don’t come to the Town Square watch the fireworks from their homes.
Habbit and others serve cocoa and cookies inside City Hall during the evening, which helps to keep attendees warm.
She noted several local businesses and organizations have stepped forward to support the event. They include Fonce’s Produce; Tom Brown, Handyman; Wellsburg Auto Sales; DiCarlo’s Pizza; Subway; William Watson and Associates; First National Bank; Wellsburg Vision Clinic; and the Wellsburg Moose Lodge.
Yost and Greene said their work preparing for the event offers a fun departure from their usual duties.
Greene said he worked previously for the former Aladdin Signs and his experience there working with outdoor lights has been helpful.
“We bring our families down here (for the event) and they spend time with us,” said Yost.
“We let them (their family members) shoot the cannon. We try to make it a good time for everyone,” said Greene.