A year ago, the city’s Pottsville Positive Committee had more than 20 volunteers. Since then, the numbers have dwindled, City Administrator Thomas A. Palamar said Monday.
“We’ve had, at one point in time, like 30 people on our list as far as those who were actively participating in meetings,” city Councilman Joseph J. Devine Jr. said Monday.
“Now we have about six,” Palamar said. He was counting himself, Devine and Merideth Hannan, the mayor’s secretary.
They’re hoping more volunteers will get involved in the new year, and said a reorganization meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Feb. 10 at the conference room on the second floor of city hall. At that time, the committee may appoint a new chairman, since the committee’s previous chairman, Matthew Drouncheck, announced his resignation in November.
When contacted Dec. 2, Drouncheck refused to comment on the matter.
“Matt just gave me a verbal resignation. He might have just been having a bad day or whatever. He’s more than welcome to come back. For whatever reason, some people decide to stay with us and others go on. We lost some because they were business people who had other commitments,” Devine said.
“And most of those people would help out with projects in the future, too. I don’t think any of them are done volunteering with Pottsville Positive. They’re just done with being responsible for running it. And that’s why we’re here. There’s always going to be consistency as long as we’re involved. And Joe will make sure of that,” Palamar said, referring to himself, Devine, Hannon and other city officials.
In February 2014, during his first State of the City address, Mayor James T. Muldowney said the city would have a better future if more volunteers step forth. And that night he, Palamar and members of council, including Devine, announced the committee would be established.
On Monday, Devine read the group’s mission statement: “The mission of Pottsville Positive is to enhance city programs by matching the talents of concerned individuals and groups of all ages with a wide variety of interesting and challenging projects.”
In July 2014, the volunteer group that ravamped the Pottsville City Independence Celebration, and the group also organized that event this year.
In 2014, the committee agreed to facilitate the city’s New Year’s Eve celebration, and that tradition will also continue this year, Palamar said.
Pottsville has had a community New Year’s celebration consecutively since December 1985. “New Year’s Eve in Pottsville” will be held in Garfield Square.
The city will ask the state Department of Transportation for permission to close a section of Route 209 — West Market Street from Fourth Street to Sixth Street — for the event, from 11 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Dec. 31.
The event will feature music by a disc jockey and city officials will bring in 2016 by hosting a 6-foot tall replica of a D.G. Yuengling & Son Inc. beer bottle to the top of a flag pole. It’s a tradition that started when the city took over the reins of the community New Year’s Eve celebration from the Pottsville Jaycees in December 2004, according to The Republican-Herald’s archives.
“And the countdown clock with be there,” Palamar said.