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County plans New Year's Eve party with 'apple drop'

A couple of years ago, County Manager Steve Wyatt got tired of hearing about New Year’s Eve parties in Asheville and Greenville, S.C.
“Dadgum,” he said, “what do we have to do to get people to stay here in Hendersonville and Henderson County? Let’s fill up our hotels, fill up our restaurants downtown. … This year several months ago I bounced it off John Connet and he said, ‘Yeah, we’d be interested in that.’”
Wyatt brought in John Mitchell, the county’s business and community development director, and sought help from city downtown development director Lew Holloway.
“It’s supposed to be cold,” Wyatt said. “If it’s dry we’re thinking about starting a little bit earlier and offering some kids’ stuff.”
It can only work, he added, if the restaurants agree to stay open later, until at least 11, so revelers can get out of the cold until close to midnight. The planners also want to add recorded music and an “apple drop” starring the county’s iconic fruit on the plaza at the Historic Courthouse.
“There will be some kind of apple drop. I’m trying to get a possum to catch it at the bottom,” he added, tongue in cheek, referring to the famous (and controversial) Clay Corners Possum Drop on New Year’s Eve in Brasstown.
Hendersonville’s celebration is unlikely to include anything to spark a national animal rights fuss — and require a judge’s order to proceed.
The event doesn’t even include booze, which is another reason it could be a boon to restaurants and bars, inns and Uber drivers.
“Maybe some of the B&B sell packages,” Wyatt said. “What our plan is we’re going to try it, we’re going to see how it goes. We’re not going to spend a lot of money. We’re going to try to do this ourselves. I talked about fireworks but then I thought fireworks were probably not a good idea this year. There’s only one way to find out” if people want to stay here and celebrate. “You try it. I’ve bombed before. I’ll bomb again.”
“The idea is to use the restaurants downtown” as the main source of food and drink, he added. “Circulate dollars. Stay open till midnight and even toot a horn.”