By JON HARRISON/ Staff Writer

The Pelham city council voted Tuesday night, Jan. 20, to be a part of Alabama’s upcoming bicentennial celebration.

The council voted to support the Alabama Bicentennial Commission in coordinating and promoting celebratory activities for Alabama’s bicentennial celebration.

“As a student of history and a seventh generation Alabamian, I love this state,” said city Councilman Ron Scott. “I think it is fabulous that the governor’s office has designated the department of tourism, who does so well with these events, under the direction of Lee Sentell, has come forward and asked cities to accept the challenge of sponsoring events during the bicentennial year 2019.”

Scott said he hopes to involve the entire community in the bicentennial events.

“This is our agreement to support what our state is doing,” said Scott. “We will do some things here on the local level and incorporate these events into our planning and our community events. I think it is a wonderful opportunity to go beyond the lessons taught in our classrooms and in our schools, and maybe indeed we can incorporate our school system into this also.”

Rick Hayes, Pelham City Council president, said he was looking to be proactive about the upcoming events.

“We will be ahead of time,” said Hayes. “It will be about a year before when we start to nail down because we have to work in coordination with the state.”

Jay Lamar, director of the Alabama Bicentennial Commemoration, said she is “terribly excited” about the upcoming events.

“We are in the process of putting together so many wonderful programs,” said Lamar. “We plan to have traveling exhibitions, a speaker series, oral history programs and a number of other events.”

Lamar said a bicentennial congress is being assembled from communities around the state to plan and carry out events in individual communities.

To find out more about Alabama’s bicentennial celebration visit Alabama200.org.