The Pineville square was decorated for Christmas as a crowd gathered for the town's 100th anniversary on Saturday.
City council members were on the stage when mayor Gregg Sweeten said the celebration would begin like a city council meeting. A motion was voted on to open the meeting. The pledge of allegiance followed, along with a prayer by Pastor Leo Lenze. The Walker Family of Roundup Ministries treated the audience to a song, "Go Tell it on the Mountain."
Then Sweeten welcomed the crowd and made some remarks. He said the way the celebration got started is the town has some very old ordinances and the paper is getting very old and so the city decided to buy some scanners in order to preserve the ordinances digitally. They were going through the ordinances and discovered that Dec. 8, 1919, was the date that Pineville was incorporated as a village.
Sweeten shared some of the history of Pineville. He said on June 11, 1847, the land was surveyed and started being sold. The Jesse James film was made in Pineville, and Civil War battles were fought in the area as well.
"There is so much history here, and we pride ourselves on keeping that history alive," he said.
The town has two streams, the Little Sugar Creek and Big Sugar Creek, which merge to form the Elk River, Sweeten said. The Elk River gives the town its tourist industry, he noted.
Also, the town is one of a few in the state that has an elected marshal.
He also noted there is no telling what the development of Interstate 49 will bring.
"We're sitting right between two major metropolitan areas," he said. "We understand we're a bedroom community. We will never be a big town, nor do we want to be."
Following his remarks, Sweeten asked local church ministers to bless the town, and each one of them said a prayer.
Next, State Rep. Dirk Deaton and State Sen. David Sater presented the town with proclamations from the State House of Representatives and the State Senate, respectively.
Then the Walker Family sang "Oh Beautiful Star."
Ken Cowin closed the event in prayer, and then city council members voted on a motion to close the meeting.
Following the program, there were cupcakes and hot chocolate, and special commemorative coins were distributed.
General News on 12/12/2019