I attended a very special celebration Wednesday evening at the AMES CENTER in Burnsville.
First, to celebrate the fifty years of the City of Burnsville. Mayor Kautz had all the past and present council members come on stage. Then all the city managers joined them. She gave a brief history of the city. Part of the story is that Bloomington at one point wanted to annex Burnsville. Burnsville was once a farming community and there is a statue to commemorate that beginning. The mayor mentioned that there are currently 2600 businesses in Burnsville. Ames Construction was actually formed a year before the city incorporated. Abdallah Candies moved to Burnsville from Minneapolis about fifty years ago. It is a family owned company that goes back a hundred years.
The second part of the celebration was to celebrate the name change from The Burnsville Performing Art Center to the Ames Center. The Ames Family was recognized for their contribution to the facility and then Dick Ames told how they first started working in Burnsville and how they came to move their business to Burnsville.
The evening was topped of by the performance of Hitchville, a very talented country music band, and some members are Burnsville residents.