A Marion tradition will not be carried on — at least not for this year.

According to organizer Davey Hett, there will be no ball drop or fireworks display New Year’s Eve as there has been in the past because the pyrotechnician is not available to detonate the fireworks.

“I didn’t want to have a ball drop without fireworks,” Hett said.

The event started in 2000, when a wire representation of the New Year’s numbers was outlined in lights on the Marion County Courthouse building and a lighted, wire ball — replicating the ball that is dropped in New York City and other cities across the country — was lowered from the courthouse flagpole at midnight New Year’s Eve.

Thousands of revelers have attended the event during the past 10 years, making it a stop on their way home from other gatherings or bundling up and coming from home for the event.

For the past several years, the ball drop had been from the top of the Cooperative and Grain elevator, south of the courthouse. Fireworks were added with the blessings of the City of Marion.

Will there be a ball drop and fireworks next year?

“Maybe,” Hett said.

If the community wants this to continue, Hett would appreciate financial support for the fireworks and other materials needed to make it memorable.