ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
The Five State Fair is just days away, and soon after that, the Seward County PRCA Rodeo will get under way.
Workers at the Seward County Fairgrounds are always busy keeping up with repairs and maintenance to buildings and land at the facilities, and Activity Center Director Linda Johnson said much of the work in the past year has been in the form of painting.
“We finally got our shop painted,” she said. “We had it sandblasted. We scraped and scraped until we could finally get it to where we could get some paint on it. We built the blocks first, and then we painted over that.”
In the Beef Barn, pens have been cleaned, and Johnson said much of this work has been done to keep from overwhelming fairgrounds workers in that building.
With somewhat above average rains in the area this year, mowing too has been a constant at the fairgrounds, so much so that Johnson said it seems every day, there is something to mow.
“We’ve got to watch where we mow because it’s so wet out there, we can get stuck,” she said.
Drainage has been a constant issue for years at the fairgrounds, but Johnson said she believes she has found a way to help curtail the problem somewhat.
“The blocks I use, that helps it in that one area, but we’ve still got water standing,” she said. “We’re trying to figure out how we can keep from having to pump that off. They’ll call us in the evenings and say, ‘We need this pump up.’ My guys have to come back out. We have to pump it, but wherever you pump it, everything’s full of water. We get it off of there.”
With events taking place all the way up to the fair, Johnson said with that in mind, fairgrounds workers will be constantly setting up and tearing down in the buildings across the grounds.
“We’ll come in and start setting things up, pulling out showcases, trying to place it where they want it, and they can come in and check,” she said. “We have to bring over the picture wheel, the cages where they hang things, the glass board, and we have to put a back drop up in the show arena. There’s a lot of things we have to get ready for. It keeps us busy.”
On some of the roads around the fairgrounds, Johnson said fences are being built in order to keep people from driving on them during fair time to allow for foot traffic.
“It’s a walkthrough to cut the traffic off,” she said. “We’re going to get that done, and we’ve got some gates we’re going to close off and keep people from traveling through with vehicles.”
Although there will not be an actual carnival at this year’s fair, a similar event will happen Saturday, Aug. 9, and Johnson said workers will have to help with the set up there as well.
“People come in and set their own events up,” she said. “It’s trying to get everything done and do our other events we have too. We have school enrollment, and we have the Chromebook checkout.”
Sound for concerts and other events likewise has been a problem for many years, but Johnson said sound has been set up for animal shows and other events at this year’s fair.
“They want the big speakers put on the back side so they can announce when the animals need to come in,” she said. “We have to get all that done, and we have to set up the stages for the fashion revue. They’re going to the Quilts of Valor in the grandstands. We’ll set up a stage in the back of the Ag Building, and that’s where they’re going to have some of their concerts.”
Many fair events will take place in the Ag Building, and Johnson said the set up and tear down work will continue for those activities, as well as the canopy across from the Ag Building behind the grandstands.
“They’ll have their pork feed, a hot dog feed and an ice cream social,” she said. “We’ll just have to keep moving around and setting things up, plus all the cleaning, and we’ll still keep mowing. It keeps us busy.”
After a previous set of bleachers in the rodeo arena were damaged in a storm a few years ago, a new bigger set was installed in the arena, and Johnson said thus far, there have been no complaints.
“They’re sound,” she said. “They’re safe. We had some issues with them, but all that’s been taken care of. They’ve been stamped by an engineer, and we’re ready to go. I think it’ll give us a lot of seating that we didn’t have, and handicapped people, they will love it.”
Fees for events at the fairgrounds were increased a couple of years ago, and though she was initially cautious about the higher amounts, after visiting with officials in neighboring Garden City, she found the local fees were quite comparable.
“The lady in Garden City, I called and visited with her, and she sent me all her fees,” she said. “Our fees and her fees are really close. Some more than we are, and some less. It evens out. I don’t feel we’re out of price. I feel the commissioners knew we had to do something because we hadn’t had an increase since 2009. When everything keeps going up with all your supplies and all your utilities, it got to the point where we had to have an increase.”
July 1 marked the start of a new fiscal year for the county, and thus far, Johnson said her budget looks good.
“We had to do a lot of cuts because we’re trying to keep from raising taxes,” she said. “All the departments worked together, and we were trying to see what we could come up with for the main squeeze on our budget. We just have to cut back a little bit, use our mind and figure out how we’re going to do things.”
In the past year, Johnson lost one employee, and she said she will not be allowed to hire another employee for the upcoming fiscal year.
“That puts us in a little bit of a squeeze in the summertime with getting ready for fair and our events,” she said. “In the wintertime, I probably won’t miss that person, but I’ll get me a hat and go out and mow if I have to. I don’t have a problem with that.”
As for projects in the new fiscal year, Johnson said for now, she wants to finish what she has started.
“I’ve got the metal bot for the Ag Building, and I want to be able to get that project done,” she said. “I’m working over here on the old Road and Bridge building trying to make it more presentable looking. We’ve got the shop wall done. I have it in my budget, if they approve it, to be able to sandblast and put the right kind of paint that’s compatible on that 4-H Beef Barn to make it look better.”
All of Seward County’s commissioners are relatively new to the commission, with only Steve Helm in his second term. Johnson said so far, she has been able to work well with the newest commissioners.
“They have been really good,” she said. “I can’t complain.”
Johnson said commissioners even allowed her to use a trailer the county’s maintenance department keeps in downtown Liberal, and neither herself nor Building Maintenance Director Greg Rice has a problem with that. The trailer was recently used to help workers transport trees cut down at the fairgrounds.
“We’re using the bucket truck that stays downtown, and I called Greg,” Johnson said. “He said, ‘No problem.’ So we’re using it. I don’t think we have a problem with that. I think that was a wise choice for them, and I had never thought of that when I asked for a trailer. They came up with that, and I think that’s a good idea.”
As the work continues, Johnson said she is confident the fairgrounds will be ready for the upcoming fair and rodeo.
“Once the rain gets out of here, we have a little bit of mowing to do,” she said. “We’ve been mowing like crazy trying to get ahead of this rain. We do our touchups. Every year, I stress on this, and I think we got this, we got that to do, but it all comes together. We’ll be out there working, and we’ll get it done. We’re not afraid of hard work.”
