If you were in downtown Cheyenne the weekend, or are there now, you noticed a rather tall crane now hovering over the depot plaza downtown.

And the rather large steel ball with it are the centerpieces for what should be one of the more memorable New Year’s Eve celebrations in Wyoming’s Capital City!

An estimated 4-thousand-500 people packed the plaze and the surrounding area for last year’s New Year’s Eve celebration.

Darren Rudloff with Visit Cheyenne says he expects this year’s crowd to be much larger.

City officials says if the crowd is what they expect tonight, they will shut down Lincolnway to accomodate.

The 300-pound steel ball will be lowered by that 150-foot crane for the countdown to midnight complete with LED lights!

Winds of up to 80 miles an hour almost spoiled last year’s celebration, but the much larger crane is better equipped to hand the wind if it picks up again tonight.

And of course, with any New Year’s celebration, there’s going to be potent potables consumed.  Obviously, city officals and police want everyone to have a good time downtown tonight, so if you do plan to drink, be smart.

Cheyenne police and the Wyoming Highway Patrol will have extra patrols out this evening to watch over the anticipated large crowd downtown, as well as watch over the large crowd expected for the planned outdoor concert tonight at the Outlaw Saloon on South Greeley Highway.

Word of warning from police…. the State of Wyoming has a no tolerance stance when it comes to drinking and driving!