SUNBURY -- It was a rowdy New Year's Eve in Northumberland County after a massive brawl broke out.
Sunbury police said more than 50 people started fighting outside some bars on North 3rd Street between Market Street and Woodlawn Avenue.
Officers were able to quickly break it up and no one was badly injured. No one was arrested after that brawl but officers from several nearby police departments were brought in to help handle the chaos.
"With that many people, you're always going to be calling for help," said Mayor Dave Persing. "That's how police departments work and how we all work together and that's what happened."
Until Sunbury gets a new permanent police chief, Persing is the man in charge of the department. So even though no one was badly hurt or even arrested, he's taking a close look at this fight and the sour taste it left on Sunbury's annual New Year's celebration.
"We'll look at the situation and see if we feel there's any kind of impact with the celebration itself," Persing added. "A lot of communities have New Year's Eve celebrations. I don't know if they have situations like this after either."
Newswatch16 spoke at length with several of the bar owners located in the vicinity of where the brawl happened. They all declined to go on camera.
For people who live in the area like Kate Fiori, all she can do is shake her head because this isn't the Sunbury she remembers from when she first moved here more than 30 years ago.
"Sunbury is not town it was years ago," said Fiori. "There's a lot of people that have moved into this area from other places and it's not the same town. There's a lot of problems."
Because this fight happened hours after Sunbury's New Year's Eve celebration ended, the mayor does want to reassure people that the celebration itself is not at risk at all of going away.