By Wayne Allenw

wallen@

communitycommon.com

In 2015 the city of Portsmouth will celebrate its 200th birthday. In an effort to make sure the celebration is organized and pulled together a Bicentennial Exploratory Committee has been formed. The next meeting will be August 24th to come up with more ideas and suggestions for the celebration.

"In researching how other cities, especially Columbus, started their bicentennial event. They all started at least five years ahead of time. It takes time to raise money, it takes time to generate public support. It really takes time to get the input from the community, as far as what type of activities, festivities should take place," Kevin Johnson, temporary committee chairman said.

The committee was formed in February and has been working hard to get this started.

"We are simply an exploratory committee. I think we have done our homework, but there is still a lot of work to be done," Johnson said.

"This will take a community to make sure this is done the right way," Johnson said.

The meeting will be held at the Scioto County Welcome Center, 342 Second Street at 4 p.m. for the purpose of initiating and organizing a formal Portsmouth Bicentennial Committee.

For more information or to RSVP call Johnson at 876-8558 or kwwj@roadrunner.com