FAIRVIEW TOWNSHIP -
It was a bittersweet night for one volunteer fire company's annual carnival in Luzerne County.
This is the end of the road for the Mountain Top Hose Company #1 's annual bazaar.
The organization says it can no longer hold the fundraising event due to lack of money and lack of volunteers.
It was opening night at the Mountain Hose Company #1`s 44th annual bazaar and folks were packing in for an evening of fun with friends and family.
“We`ve been coming up here for years, many years, we have friends that live in Mountain Top,” said Carol Rushton from Exeter.
There plenty of games and fun activities and of course, plenty of yummy fair food that was clearly getting a thumbs-up from the culinary critics.
“Really good, great food, great food, yeah, it`s a good time,” said Scot Murphy from Mountain Top.
This event is the company`s largest fundraising effort.
But the company says it`s just become too hard to continue holding the bazaar for a number of reasons: the cost to put this on, the lack of volunteers and the changes to games of chance.
So, this will be the last year for the popular event.
“It`s become a difficult thing to organize and getting enough people to do this along with some other challenges we have with putting it together,” said David Horigan with the Hose Co. “The changes to the games of chance, the young people can`t play instant bingo, we can`t have the wheel, we can`t have children go buy a 25 cent ticket to win a stuffed animal.”
But without the income from the bazaar, money will have to come from someplace else.
The company is asking Fairvew Township to impose a tax on residents to help cover its
bills.
A question asking if residents want that tax hike would be placed on the ballot in the fall.
If the question passes that would mean for a home accessed at 100 thousand dollars there would a yearly increase of 30 dollars in taxes.
“Not having a fire company isn`t an option, we absolutely have to do that,” said Horigan.
“They`re going to have to start paying for services now, yeah,” said Kathie Aigeldinger from Mountain Top.
For many this will be a bittersweet weekend.
Leslie Duvall`s cousin is with the Hose Co.
She and her husband, Mike came up from Maryland just for this.
“It`s sad, I`ve been coming here since I was a little kid,” said Duvall. “My grandmother lived up here and we used to come up when I was just little and I`ve been coming here for years and when Chico said this is the last time, I said we have to come this time.”
The Mountain Top Hose Co. #1’s 44th and Final bazaar runs through Sunday with a 5o’clock auction to be held on the final day.
