By EMILY SPARACINO / Staff Writer

CHELSEA – Lifelong Chelsea resident Earlene M. Isbell occupied a front-row seat for the city’s 20th birthday celebration at the Chelsea Community Center on the afternoon of April 10.

In a sense, Isbell also had a front-row seat for the city’s formation. As a member of the first City Council from 1996 to 2000, she helped to lead the city following its incorporation on March 1, 1996.

“It was just all new to us,” Isbell, 85, said at the celebration. “We did a lot because we just had a lot to do.”

Isbell was one of nearly 100 people – including former and current City Council members, incorporation committee members and residents – at the April 10 celebration and ribbon cutting for the community center, which opened in October 2015.

“This is a very important occasion for the city of Chelsea, and each one of you have been a part of it,” said Mayor Earl Niven, who is serving his fifth and final term as Chelsea’s first and only mayor. “Everything that happens in Chelsea goes back to the latter part of 1995 and the early part of 1996, when we incorporated.”

Niven invited former council members from each four-year term to read their accomplishments for the city aloud.

Isbell and Shelby Blackerby shared the following milestones from their 1996-2000 term on the council with Glenn Autry Jr., Robert Combs and the late Col. John Ritchie: Incorporated with population of 906; established rules and regulations for city operations; established bank accounts; established working committees; established building inspection services with Shelby County; identified sources of revenue; creating planning commission; provided financial support to Chelsea schools; added major annexations; adopted an official town flower; established the annual Christmas parade; established the Citizen Observer Patrol, an all-volunteer group that assists law enforcement in patrolling the city and deterring crime; established the Chelsea Tree Commission; merged Chelsea Volunteer Fire Department with the City of Chelsea Fire Department; established the Chelsea Public Library; qualified to become a “Tree City USA;” and celebrated the first Arbor Day.

Blackerby said she oversaw Chelsea’s annexation efforts, which were not easy as some residents were against being annexed within city limits.