Town prepares for county fair

PLAINS – With the Sanders County Fair right around the corner the fair board came together for one final meeting before the big event.

The final meeting before the fair was held on Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. on Aug. 20 at the fairground’s pavilion.

The majority of the meeting was spent discussing the particulars of the event from parking to lighting and making sure everyone on the fair board knew their duties for the upcoming event.

Fair Manger Mike Hashisaki started the proceedings discussing the electrical upgrades going on around the fairgrounds.

“We have upgraded the north grandstand spotlight system to an LED system,” Hashisaki said.

The fair manager added the new light system uses one tenth of the electricity of the previous lighting system and joked to be careful when looking directly at the new lights due to their brightness.

Hashisaki mentioned the fairgrounds have been wired for data, replacing the previous voice system.

“We are the only fair in the state of Montana wired for data,” Hashisaki said.

In the midst of the final preparations for the fair, the fair board took a moment to discuss next year’s veteran’s Stand Down.

According to Hashisaki, the Department of Veterans Affairs is implementing some changes to the program and in the future the surplus program will be intended specifically for homeless veterans.

Following the discussion on next year’s stand down the board returned to items pertaining to this week’s fair.

The fair board discussed the possibility of bringing Miss Rodeo Montana to the fair, noting she had shown interest in attending the event.

It would cost $200 to host Miss Rodeo Montana and the fair board moved to look for donations to host the guest or use their own funds if necessary.

“If we can’t come up with donations I think we can squeeze out the money,” Hashisaki said.

Rachel Hulce of Hot Springs was in attendance representing Chicks N Chaps and talked about the importance of the fair for the organization.

Hulce said Chicks N Chaps was able to raise $5,000 at last year’s fair, half of which went towards Clark Fork Valley Hospital and the other half went to the Sanders County Cancer Network.

“It is our big fundraiser of the year. The fair lets us get back out in the community,” Hulce said.

After Hulce’s remarks the fair board continued to discuss preparations for the event announcing as of now 24 bull riders will be taking part in the rodeo and hand sanitizer dispensers have been installed in the 4-H areas.

Hashisaki also mentioned a change in the parking layout, noting handicap parking had been moved off the road to the side of the fairgrounds.

“We should see an uptick in parking fees this year, which should help the bottom line,” Hashisaki said.

The fair board confirmed the fair’s parade will go on and the Plains Wrestling team were the ones who stepped up to ensure the continuation of the annual parade.

Following the meeting Hashisaki mentioned he was looking forward to the fair’s four arena events, particularly bull riding.

“People are kind of crazy to do that,” Hashisaki said, referring to the dangerous nature of the sport.