The city of Pineville recently held a “cable-cutting” ceremony in front of the Bell Theater on Courthouse Square to celebrate fEastern Telephone making free WiFi available in the downtown area.

Pineville Mayor Shawn Fugate II, Bell County Judge-Executive Albey Brock and Eastern Telephone president Daryl Maynard cut the cable as they were joined by Main Street Pineville Director Johnna Callebs, members of the Main Street Board and Eastern’s Karen Roberts Prater and Frank Dawhare.

“We have phase one completed, which is right around the Courthouse Square. We know how important this type of technology will be to help grow the community,” Maynard said. “We have installed radios on the towers here so, probably in the next two months, the rest of the city will also have access to free WiFi.”

He thanked former Main Street Pineville Director Jacob Roan and former Mayor Scottt Madon for their efforts in getting the downtown project started as well as Brock and Rob Lincks for allowing the use of the courthouse as the center of the project.

Fugate said he and the city of Pineville were excited to have free WiFi downtown.

“You all did quite a bit of this work before I got here, but we’re very excited about our partnership and what you’re doing for our downtown,” he said.