Up until last night, the Christmas lights that sparkled at Yuengling Bicentennial Park in Pottsville were dark.
The Lasting Legacy committee, which oversaw ensuring the lights decorated the park for the holiday season, had gone dormant over the last year. And that meant no one made sure the lights were strung up around the park that occupies an entire city block.
Yuengling Bicentennial Park spans the block between 10th to 11th and Mahantongo to W. Norwegian streets.
For about the last five years, at Christmastime, thousands of lights have lit up the park and it became a popular spot to take a winter stroll or pose for Instagram-worthy photos.
But until last night, that wasn’t the case for 2025.
However, some last-minute donations that raised enough money to pay for some new lights and members of the Pottsville Street Dept. to rig up the lights, the park is sparkling bright just in time for the holidays.
Jerry Enders, a founding member of the Lasting Legacy committee in 2004, said the fact that the park was dark came up at a transition team meeting last week for the incoming administration at City Hall.
“It was a shame for that park not to be open,” he told The Canary.
Enders said he reached out to City Streets Superintendent Tom Whitaker, who said it would cost about $2,000 to get the park lit up in time for Christmas. So Enders said he made a few phone calls.
Thanks to donations from the law firm of Marshall, Bohorad, Thornburg, Price & Campion, Pioneer Pole Buildings, Quandel Enterprises, and fellow founding Lasting Legacy board member Joe Schlitzer and his wife and former City Councilwoman, Nancy, new lights were purchased, a walking path was cleared of ice and snow, and the park was once again lit.
A piece of specialty plowing equipment from Saint Clair Borough was even brought in to help clear some of the snow.
On Tuesday morning, Enders was joined by Mayor-elect Tom Smith and his wife, Lori, and Sheryl Yuengling to put some of the finishing touches on the park’s decor.
Some of the bigger decorations will not be part of the display this year, partly due to timing and also because some of them were donated for a limited time by the company that sold the City its new lamppost decorations.
Next year, though, Enders said the winter grandeur of the park will return in full.
Yuengling Bicentennial Park will be decorated for the holidays and open until 9 p.m. daily into January.
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