Tamaqua to host 20th annual New Year’s Eve ball drop

It’s a celebration 20 years in the making.

All the more reason why this Sunday’s New Year’s Eve ball drop in Tamaqua from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. figures to take on an even greater meaning.

The ABC Tamaqua Hi Rise will commemorate the start of 2018 with a live feed from New York’s Times Square, along with the traditional rise of brightly lit eagles making their way to the top of the Hi Rise, Schuylkill County’s tallest building.

“It’s important to keep it in our area,” said Deann Breiner, social services coordinator for ABC Tamaqua Hi Rise. “It’s a nice get-together for the local residents.”

Schuylkill County’s largest New Year’s Eve celebration will once again feature the light and sound spectacle courtesy of Frank Fabrizio of Brockton, much as it has since the event began in 1998.

At that time, Fabrizio modeled his work after the ball drop in Times Square. He then changed the ball to an eagle several years later in acknowledgment of Tamaqua Area School District’s mascot.

Much as eagles do, Fabrizio changed the trajectory of the lights from going down to flying up.

Once the eagles rise to the top of the hi-rise, a 2018 sign will light up.

The 200 block of East Broad Street will be blocked to traffic during those hours as a safety measure.