Bicentennial committee begins planning celebration for Parkersburg

PARKERSBURG - As Parkersburg is poised to celebrate its bicentennial in 2010, a committee met Wednesday night to begin to determine how the area will celebrate this milestone.

Parkersburg Mayor Robert Newell called together a group of community and business leaders for a meeting about getting organized and developing ideas about what can be done in the coming year to commemorate the city's first 200 years.

''I wanted to kick things off,'' the mayor said. ''There are a lot of things we could do.''

Although the city was incorporated in 1820, records from the original Commonwealth of Virginia show the town was founded in 1810.

''We are definitely in the right year,'' Newell said.

Jim Fox, a member of the Wood County Board of Education, and Abby Hayhurst, director of the Parkersburg Art Center, were voted to be co-chairmen of the committee. Other committee members attending were David Newell, John Lutz, Roger Sheppard, Sharyn Tallman, Jess Mancini and Jay Jones. Other members who were absent included Cecil Childress, Susan Bayles and Felice Jorgeson.

A hundred years ago when the city had the centennial officials held a celebration during the month of September, Newell said.

The current committee could do something similar during a particular time or have events held throughout the year to appeal to a wide variety of people, to help highlight the main celebration, he said.

The mayor mentioned having a grand fireworks display. He said a ball could be held at the Blennerhassett Hotel in the spring, a golf tournament in the summer and possibly a commemorative plate or something commissioned to sell throughout the year.

Others on the committee suggested tying in a celebration with the Parkersburg Homecoming Festival or to have special events in City Park on July Fourth.

Other suggestions included having school children produce a play detailing the history of the area, special events at theaters, a showing of historical photos at the art center, and creating a pictorial history in either a book or a film presentation.

In coming up with ideas, Fox said he wanted to get as many people to participate as possible from the oldest citizens to the youngest.

''I would like to get as many people as possible involved,'' he said. ''You would definitely want to get the kids involved. You also want to honor the senior citizens who helped make some of the history of our city.''

Sheppard said such celebrations highlight the history which is good for many older citizens, but they needed to have events where youth can anticipate the future.

''We could look to the future and have an art contest where area school children can do a picture of how they see Parkersburg in another 200 years,'' he said.

Hayhurst suggested having a bicentennial logo contest for all ages where each school could have its own logo contest. A contest could be held throughout the community with the top picks sent to the art center for a big display and a grand prize winner is chosen.

The committee discussed the need for a Web site to post information about upcoming events and having a place where people from all over the country can buy merchandise.

The mayor said he would be going to city council and other organizations soon about securing startup money.

He urged committee members to contact community leaders from businesses and organizations to help generate ideas and aspects of the planning.

The committee agreed to come up with at least five ideas of events it wants to do and those will be presented at a meeting Dec. 9 to see what is feasible.

''We will also need to determine what our goals are and come up with a mission statement,'' Fox said. ''We want to celebrate our history.''