Published: December 27, 2008 11:17 pm      

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Downtown kicking off 2009 with bigger, brighter ball drop

CUMBERLAND — The Town Centre’s claim to be Times-Square South will become even more legitimate at midnight Wednesday when a replica of the lighted ball used in New York City is lowered to announce the beginning of the new year.

The 3-foot-diameter light contains 300 LED bulbs on a white frame and replaces a mirror ball that was used during the first three celebrations and which required illumination from outside sources. The $700 ball was purchased by way of a grant from the Maryland Main Street Program.

The replicated light ball is just one more indicator that a small idea instituted to help the downtown’s restaurant business on New Year’s Eve has exploded into a signature event, according to Ed Mullaney, downtown manager.

“We were amazed that we drew 1,000 people the first year,” Mullaney said Saturday. “This past year, the third year for the drop, we had about 2,000, in bad weather.”

Rusty Godwin, a local lighting expert, has been the point man since ball drop one in the battle to illuminate downtown Cumberland when local citizens say “out with the old and in with the new.”

“The new ball is so big that we can’t take it through Cumberland Arms to get to the roof,” Godwin said. Instead, the ball will be hoisted to the rooftop via cable, the same cable on which it will be lowered at the stroke of midnight.

Other parts of this annual night on the town include:

• Musical entertainment by Galla & Dan and also Rick and Margie. The two duets will alternate on the Town Centre Stage from 9 p.m. to midnight.

• Downtown restaurants will be open.

• Downtown Dollar will offer for sale New Year’s Eve hats and noisemakers.

• Street vendors offering items such as roasted peanuts.

• Allegany County Museum at Town Centre and Centre Street will be open with refreshments.

• The Christmas carriage will offer free rides from 5 p.m. until the crowd swells.

• Liberty Street will be closed to traffic at 8 p.m.

“My understanding is that a lot of the downtown clubs have events going on until 11:30 and are encouraging their members and customers to then go to the ball drop,” Mullaney said.

Mullaney said the first three crowds have been well behaved. “We always have a police presence. It’s a family event,” he said.

When the ball bottoms out after a drop of 85 feet, it will illuminate a 4- by 8-foot sign that has a drawing of Cumberland’s church steeples and 2009 inscribed. The ball will be visible from just about anywhere on the mall, organizers said.

Among the other lighted displays created by Godwin will be intelligent lights in the windows of the former Manhattan at Liberty and Town Centre. “I’ll have a champagne glass with 600 lights that is 4 feet high and continues to bubble,” Godwin said.

“We have to go back to year one and thank Mark Rose of Mark’s Daily Grind who came up with the idea to do something on New Year’s Eve,” Mullaney said. “He’ll be open this year with a lot of goodies available, including hot chocolate.

“This is a rain-or-shine event,” Mullaney said. “We held it last year and it was plenty cold and wet.”

The long-range weather forecast for Wednesday night is windy and cool with a temperature of 41.

“We’ll take that,” Mullaney said.

Contact Michael A. Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com.