News you can use

LaVoi wants grandstands back at the fairgrounds

Fair board chair calls for ideas

A Hill County commissioner said this week he wants to find ways to bring grandstands back to the arena at the Great Northern Fairgrounds, and is looking at ways to pay for it.

“I’d like to see a grandstand back there again,” Commissioner Jeff LaVoi told the Great Northern Fair Board at its monthly meeting. “I think it would create some community pride that only it could do, and the rest of these programs would all grow from it as well.”

At the same meeting, board Chair Bert Corcoran called on the board members to think about new events that could bring more people to the fairgrounds.

Corcoran said the board has been called upon to find ways to make the annual Great Northern Fair income pay for all of its expenses. He said that that is something committees already in place on the board could look at.

“Can I ask that both committees come back to, maybe the February, the March, meeting and come back with ways to become self-sustaining?” Corcoran asked the board members.

Fairground manager Tim Solomon said that is part of what they have been asked to do already.

One topic being addressed is to have the Fee Committee look at the revenue raised by groups’ use of the fairgrounds, and the fees they are charged.

“I think (becoming self-sustaining) is the idea,” Solomon said.

Corcoran said he wants the discussion expanded.

He said he would like to see horse racing at the fair, not a formal sanctioned event, but an informal family event to draw people in.

“If you’ve got a nag out there and you think it’s fast, bring it in,” Corcoran said.

He added that horse races are held during Native American Days at Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation.

“it attracts a crowd,” he said. “It is one of the events that people line up on the hill (to watch).”

He said another Native American Days event is the Ultimate Warrior competition, which includes running, horseback riding, swimming across the reservoir behind Bonneau Dam — “in 31-degree water” — and shooting a bow.

“People just pack that place,” Corcoran said. “It’s free out there. We could make some money.”

He added another possibility would be holding quad-runner races.

Board Member Gus Sharp agreed that finding new events could help the fair.

“At some point in time, I don’t think it would be a bad idea to develop a committee to kind of brainstorm some ideas, kind of outside of the box of what we have been doing,” he said. “Maybe there isn’t anything else out there, but you get some fresh ideas, I think that’s always a positive thing.”

LaVoi told the board Monday that he was looking into a program with U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development as a possible source of funds for a new grandstand.

He said this morning that he had contacted the appropriate USDA official and found that that program likely would not help, but that he is continuing to look for other sources.

The grandstands were condemned and torn down last decade due to safety issues, with the plan to replace them.

LaVoi said Monday that he had contacted Hill County 4-H to discuss the idea that the new 4-H Chuckwagon could be located underneath the grandstands.

Board Member Alma Seidel, longtime 4-H’er, said that at a meeting members raised concerns that that location could put the Chuckwagon too far from the barns as well as taking it off the main traffic routes at the fair, she said.

“They didn’t say no, absolutely not, but it is a concern,” Seidel said.

Sharp asked if the board was deadset on new grandstands being built on the west side of the arena, and if that would cause access difficulties for events like the annual Jaycees Demolition Derby.

Solomon said the plans in place include constructing an access route into the arena, and that the west side would be the best location.

“It would be almost crazy not to, to keep your back to the wind and the sun,” he said.

 
 

Reader Comments(1)

Oldtimehavreite writes:

Great idea, Jeff 'ol boy. You can pay for it with the $77,000 that you saved by not paying the city for the pool for 3 years.