March 29, 2024

Union County Fairgrounds building plan updated

AFTON — The Union County Fair Board plans to have an upgraded fairgrounds in approximately two years, and that plan is slowly coming together.

Instead of one large building to house all the animals and a show ring like previously decided, board and committee members chose to split the upgrade into two buildings. The first building will house cattle, while the second will house hogs, sheep and a show ring, as well as men’s and women’s bathrooms.

The previous plan would not work because of ground elevation. The new plan, however, is not official until it’s been decided contractor bids are not too high and location of buildings will work.

“Right now, we’re really at a standstill, and when I say standstill, our 501(c)3 application is going in this week, and we’ve got bids out with several contractors so we’re waiting for those bids to come back,” said Ben Adamson, Union County Fair Board vice president.

Currently, the fair board members are in the process of changing their legal status to 501(c)3 in order to accept larger private donations for when fundraising for the new buildings begin.

The rest of the construction timeline is still in place. Adamson and Brad Van Gelder, Union County Fair Board president, hope to begin construction after the 2017 Union County Fair is complete, so by the 2018 Union County Fair, all fairgoers will be able to use the new facilities.

“This gives us the opportunity to grow and to have new buildings for the future,” Van Gelder said. “It allows us to house the livestock and to hopefully keep up with the growth of the numbers of 4-Hers.”

According to Adamson, having a completely new building plan for the fairgrounds was going to be more efficient because otherwise, the upgrades were to happen to the current buildings, which are too small.

“We would have up-to-date facilities with adequate electricity supporting those facilities, adequate plumbing supporting those facilities and, most importantly, adequate size to support our growing numbers,” Adamson said. “Right now, every (livestock) barn, they are absolutely jammed full. That’s what spurred the whole discussion around these buildings.”

Van Gelder said once the bids come back for the cost of the new building plan, the building committee will have a better understanding of how much the upgrade will cost and how to go about fundraising for and financing it.

“They (Union County Board of Supervisors) were able to fund us with what they could in the past, and as of right now, our goal is to do all of this through grant writing and private fundraising,” Adamson said. “The taxpayers are going to support it by going to the fair and supporting it there. The supervisors’ budget is really tight the way it is.

“A lot of this, it’s going to cost a significant amount of money, and we realize this. ... But, some of my fondest memories as a kid were showing cattle and being over there and going to things. I have two young daughters, and if we’re successful, they will be able to spend their 4-H and FFA years in these new facilities.”

Numbers

A main reason for the upgrade is the number of kids active in 4-H has increased in the past few years. There were 194 4-H participants in the 2011-12 year, 197 in the 2012-13 year, 205 in the 2013-14 year and 221 in the 2014-15 year.

Also, the number of animals shown increased from 2013 to 2015. Beef cattle animals increased from 130 to 174, sheep went from 124 to 143, goats increased from 20 to 29, horses went from 48 to 54, pigs from 99 to 120 and rabbits from 41 to 91.

Poultry increased from 32 other poultry in 2013 to 62 other poultry and 105 broilers in 2014. There were no poultry shown in 2015 because of the avian flu epidemic.

Clover Kids participants, which are children in kindergarten through third grade, have also been consistently around 100 for the past five years.

“There just hasn’t been a lot of change over there. The buildings are in need of repair, and instead of just doing those couple barns, as a group we thought it would be better to, maybe, like we talked, put the big building in and do more things all at once instead of a building at a time,” Van Gelder said. “We’ve got a lot of 4-H kids involved, and we want to make it the best experience for them and the community.”