After a unanimous decision by the Covington City Council in its final meeting of the year, New Year’s Eve in downtown Covington will go off with a bang.

After a burn ban was implemented in the weeks before the Lighting of the Square event, the council had to make the decision of what to do with the planned fireworks for that event. The $5,000 allotted for those fireworks could either be moved to the New Year’s Eve event without a fee or to the Fourth of July but a $1,250 fee would be implemented.

This is the first year downtown Covington has hosted a New Year’s Eve event.

“Since it is the first one let’s make it a big deal and kick it off right,” Councilman Josh McKelvey said.

The council also unanimously approved the road closure for the end of the year event, however, councilmembers agreed the road closure request should have been made earlier for the event.

Councilman Chris Smith said the Covington Main Street program has already publicized the event on several media platforms and the council had not yet approved the road closures. McKelvey also urged the city to make sure the affected businesses were being notified of the road closures before they happen.

Besides the fireworks, the New Year’s Eve event will start the afternoon of Dec. 31 and run through midnight Jan. 1, 2017. It will feature the Blue Denim Band and Accent.