Main Street Pineville and the City of Pineville held their annual Gala last Saturday (Feb. 22) at Pine Mountain State Resort Park to celebrate the town’s business community.

The evening started at 6 p.m. with a happy hour reception in the Ray Harm Room where each guest or group could walk the red carpet and pose for photos, there was also a silent auction and a ring toss game where contestants could win prizes.

The dinner program started at 7 p.m. with a welcome message from Main Street Director Johnna Callebs. She thanked all of the sponsors who made the night possible as well as Rita Edmonson and the park staff for their hospitality and the great food.

Jay Steele gave the blessing for the meal and Mayor Shawn Fugate II recognized the Main Street Board and volunteers who helped organize the event.

The Gala’s special guest speaker was former mayor and current State Senator Scott Madon. Madon thanked his hometown community for their support during his write-in campaign and spoke about some of the legislation he has been working on.

He gave a special thank you to “my life-long friend Tuck Woolum who was my campaign manager, my driver, my talker — Tuck came up when I was sworn in and it meant a lot to me.”

Madon also asked everyone to continue to keep the flood victims of eastern Kentucky in their thoughts and prayers.

“This was the first time ever that all 120 counties were under a flood watch at the same time and 70 of those counties had at least some damage,” he said. “In Bell County we had over $1 million but that’s minor compared to what Floyd County, Pike County, Knott County and some of those places had.”

Mayor Fugate said he had to deal with a lot during his first seven weeks as mayor.

“Snow, ice, floods, power outages during floods — but it’s been a blessing because I’ve been able to really see early on how well our employees and our people come together,” he said. “Our police department, street department and fire department worked together almost seamlessly — this was my first big flood and I was nervous, but they were so good and I was proud to be a part of it.”

Main Street Pineville Director Tammy Jones introduced a video highlighting downtown businesses that was produced by Pineville High School’s Mountain Lion News.

“We wanted to represent our businesses downtown and we had the Mountain Lion News interview our business owners,” she said. “That’s the whole reason we have the Gala, to recognize our businesses.”

The evening was capped off with a dance with live music by Southern Rock band Spitten Image.