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New Year's Eve celebration begins with year of planning
By Susan Tebben
canfield
The New Year’s Eve celebrations in the area take lots of planning to come together. From bands to law enforcement, almost as soon as the New Year hits, strategy for the next year’s celebration begins.
For Sgt. Chris Ruiz of the Canfield Police Department, his mind is on two different sets of planning. Not only does he help with the department’s plan of action— mostly crowd control and traffic monitoring — but he also helps with other planning as a member of the First Night Canfield board.
“We’re fortunate because it’s a family-oriented event so we don’t have to worry so much about the potential of alcohol disrupting things,” Ruiz said. “And we’re also fortunate that in 15 years we haven’t had any major incidents.”
The police department calls upon the auxiliary officers who are non-sworn, volunteer officers, to help with the festivities of the night, which start at 4 p.m. and end about 1 a.m.
“There is a uniformed presence at each venue,” Ruiz said. “That includes three to five patrol officers who also stop by the venues.”
It takes about a week for the police department to organize their plans for the event.
That pales in comparison with the year of work that goes into the rest of the celebration.
For the downtown Youngstown celebration, which brought 6,500 people to the event last year, First Night Youngstown’s organizers constantly are trying to keep the entertainment fresh and the celebration big.
“Starting in the middle of January, we’ll do a critique of the [previous] event,” said John Swierz, vice president of First Night Youngstown.
As of Thursday, the main task left to do for the downtown event was to test out the ball that will drop at midnight.
With a budget of about $45,000, organizers spend about $20,000 on entertainment, Swierz said, after sending out numerous sponsorship letters to bring the funds in.
The ticket sales — in the form of buttons worn by party attendees — have been “a bit shy” of their budget, but Swierz said he thinks the sales closer to the event will make up the difference.
Support services will be provided by stand-by paramedics, fire department personnel who will oversee the fireworks displays and police officers who will serve as traffic control. Police from both YPD and Youngstown State University will be on hand to cover events downtown and at YSU venues such as the planetarium, which Swierz says is one of the most- attended venues during the night.
“We usually start in February,” said Barb Smith, executive director of First Night Canfield. “We try to pace ourselves, and it takes quite a bit of work to raise the funds.”
Fundraising has been down a bit this year, Smith said, but the organizers still were able to bring in a variety of performers, with a lot of local talent.
“We try to listen to the people who come to the First Nights,” Smith said. “To see what they want to see and do.”
The board members always have prided themselves in not contacting any talent until the money was available to pay them, Smith said.
Smith could not provide a solid budget amount for this year’s celebration, but said the fundraising went well to cover the events.
“The population fluctuates every year, so you never know,” Smith said. “But we’re excited to celebrate.”