SMYRNA – This year marks a huge milestone in Town of Smyrna history. The town will be celebrating its bicentennial this year, and residents have come up with multiple activities to help town celebrate its heritage.

The town didn’t discover that 2008 would be the year of their bicentennial until early in the year. Town Supervisor James Bays explained that in January or early February, Barb Marso was helping her father to organize some paperwork when she came across a program from the town’s 175th anniversary. It didn’t take long to realize that 2008 would be the year the town would celebrate its 200th anniversary.

“We felt strongly that this should be a citizen-driven event for all of the residents of the village and the town,” Bays said.

Different bicentennial activities have been planned for every month. The first will be held at 2 p.m. on Sunday at the Smyrna United Methodist Church. Henry Drexler will provide a slide show presentation of the history of Smyrna. The slide show will include many photos of Smyrna’s history, some of which date back at least 100 years. Light refreshments will follow the presentation, which is sponsored by the Smyrna Bicentennial Committee. A handicap entrance is available at the rear entrance of the church. The committee will be selling souvenirs at this and subsequent events. T-shirts are already available, and the committee is working on obtaining mugs, hats, calendars, pins and pens, which will be available at subsequent events.