Fair board prioritizes projects for coming year

Editor’s note: This version corrects the name of the firm designing a building to house bathrooms and where sprinkler systems are being installed.

The Great Northern Fair Board voted to accept a bid from Heberly and Associates to design the building to house new bathrooms on the west end of the grounds and discussed progress on various other ongoing projects on the fairgrounds at their monthly meeting Tuesday.

Fair Board Vice-Chair Bob Kaul said he called eight firms trying to find someone that could create an architectural plan for the bathrooms but every place he called until he got to Heberly said they were booked through the next year or two.

He said the offer given by Heberly is reasonable and the community needs better bathrooms on the grounds as soon as possible, so he wants to get this approved by the board and the Hill County Commission quickly.

Board member Ken Erickson said the project has become more expensive than originally anticipated, but the bid is reasonable and the budget can handle the expense, so he agreed that they should move as quickly as possible to get it approved.

After a vote unanimously to accept the bid Kaul said he would bring it straight to the commission first thing today.

During the meeting, the board, along with Fairgrounds Manager Frank English, discussed a number of other ongoing projects.

A new ceiling has been installed in the former office building, Kaul said, and when English is free next they can mark things that need to be removed from the walls.

Erickson said the building is looking good so far.

English said they also have a bid for the membrane of the horse barn’s roof but they will need a second bid for the outer covering.

New toilets for the Bigger Better Barn have also arrived, but still need to be installed, he said.

Kaul said priority one for the board when it comes to buildings is getting west side bathrooms up and running, with the reroofing of the horse barn a close second.

He said he knows everyone wants a grandstand in the arena but there are existing buildings that need attention so they may not get to that project until 2024, later this year at the earliest.

He also suggested that they set up some maintenance manuals for all the equipment the fairground has.

Later in the meeting, the board also talked about the prospect of the caboose getting repainted.

Erickson said he reached out to the H. Earl and Margaret Turner Clack Memorial Museum Foundation Board to see if they were willing to pay for some of the repairs to the structure, as the museum owns it instead of the fairgrounds, and they did offer some volunteer labor.

He’s the museum was originally going to set up a booth to ask for donations for the project at last year’s fair, but that didn’t end up happening, so he’s putting out a call for donations of sand for the sand blasting.

Hill County Commissioner Sheri Williams suggested he talk with the museum’s board to maybe get some of this worked out.

No one from Montana State University Hill County Extension was able to attend Tuesday night, but board Chair Michelle Burchard did deliver a report she received from them.

The report said that the new sprinkler system in the Hill County-4-H Chuckwagon is almost complete and provided updates on some of Extension’s upcoming events.

The report said they still have slots open for their Real Colors workshop Jan. 24, at the 4-H Chuckwagon from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

The class is $15 for the cost of materials.

Real Colors is a tool that attempts to bridge temperament theory and real-life applications in a way that is easier to understand and helps people learn to recognize, accept and value the differences in others while improving communication and relationships.

Williams said she took a Real Colors class during her commissioner’s training with the Montana Association of Counties and recommended it.

The report also said Extension has a calving workshop coming up Feb. 1 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the Chuckwagon.