Community leaders and county officials gathered on Tuesday to announce plans for a celebration of Calloway County’s bicentennial in 2022.
The Calloway Fiscal Court will be working in conjunction with Murray Independent Schools and Murray State University, who are also celebrating anniversaries in 2022. Murray Independent Schools is celebrating 150 years, and Murray State will celebrate its centennial.
Judge-Executive Kenny Imes said next year’s celebration will look back on the county’s 200 year history and highlight how the county started, how it grew, and how the community hopes to move forward from present day. After atumultuous summer of protests in 2020 surrounding demands to remove a Confederate statue on the court square in Murray, Imes said he wants the events of the bicentennial to bring the community together.
“We’re a community. That’s what I want this place to be: a community of people, not just building and structures,” Imes said. “I mean, it should be regardless of color or orientation: we’re a community, and that’s what you need to preach rather than diversity. We are diverse but we don’t need to be divided.” Imes said.
Imes said he doesn’t want to “politicize” any of the events surrounding the bicentennial. He said after a tough year dealing with COVID-19, bad winter weather, and disastrous flooding, that the bicentennial is meant to join everyone together.
The Calloway County Fiscal Court is sponsoring a commemorative history book in honor of the bicentennial. The book is being written by local author Bobbie Smith Bryant with help from the Calloway County Genealogical and Historical Society. County officials encourage community submissions for the publication. Imes said there have already been 60 submissions for the book, but more are needed.
Bryant said all entries, photos and suggestions are welcome. She said they are still looking for individual biographies of persons who impacted Calloway County, stories of community and civic life, as well as photographs, maps and illustrative materials. She said biographies should consist of around 300 words, and stories related to life in the county should be no longer than 500 words. Written submissions are accepted only in electronic form as a Microsoft Word or PDF file, must be in Times New Roman 12-point font and typed double-spaced. She said all artwork and images must have a minimum 300 DPI resolution (higher resolution is preferred), be in the public domain or have permission provided in writing from the copyright holder for any artwork and images to be reprinted. All submissions must include contact information for the author. Bryant said all submissions must be made by September 1, 2021 and can be submitted to her email at bobbiebryant40@gmail.com.
Imes said along with the book about the county’s history and a Founders Day event in November, he hopes to see events celebrating the bicentennial throughout the entire year. Though there are few official events on the 2022 calendar about the bicentennial, He said the purpose of Tuesday’s press conference is to generate interest and public participation in the bicentennial and create suggestions to community leaders for events centered around the county’s 200-year anniversary.
