What's Happening at the Fair?

The Wahkiakum County Fair Board will begin holding their meetings at the River Street Building Meeting Room in November. This building is located by the Wahkiakum PUD Building and our new meeting room is beside the WSU Extension Office. These meetings are attended by many people from the community and in our new location we will have plenty of chairs and be warm! Complete meeting details are at the end of this column.

It’s time to start advertising for our next fund raising event. Martha and Cheryl Backman selected November 19 for Turkey Bingo! We hope everyone in the community can stop by the J. A. Wendt multi-purpose room on November 19, 6 p.m. and join the fun!

Bingo winners will take home delicious hams and turkeys. We will have some good snacks available to purchase while you play bingo and a $1 raffle ticket will give you a chance to win many raffle prizes too. Bring your friends and invite your neighbors to attend this Wahkiakum County Fair Board fund raiser, all proceeds will go directly toward maintaining, improving and operating your 2011 Wahkiakum County Fair.

It’s “2011 Fair Theme Contest” time! Each year we ask our community to submit their ideas for a fair theme. As soon as one is selected our fair superintendents can start collecting items to decorate the many barns and buildings on the fairgrounds. If you would like to enter the “2011 Fair Theme Contest” please call 795-3480 or send your name, phone number and theme idea to E-mail: wahkiakumfair@centurytel.net or Address: Wahkiakum County Fair, P.O.Box 1, Skamokawa, Wa 98647. The Fair Board will select the most creative theme and award a prize to the contest winner in January. (Last years’ theme was “Blue Jeans and Country Dreams.”)

Please cash your Wahkiakum County Fair premium checks before October 25!

In my last column I wrote about the T-building windows grant project. Fair board members and volunteers will provide a percentage of matching work hours and supplies for this grant. At our last Fair Board meeting, in the T-building, Debbie Twiet and Neil Beerbower took a look at those nice windows and noticed the lack of trim around them inside the building. It was decided to complete the indoor building and painting plus trim the new windows with boards also. This project just got a little bigger but well worth the investment. The new windows have already made a big difference in keeping the cold out. We are starting our research to find the best way to heat the T-building for future events. If someone in our community has found a good way to heat a similar sized building we would appreciate your input before we make a decision.

In November we are planning to drain the Fairgrounds water pipes. Only self-contained motor homes, pull trailers and cab-over truck campers will be allowed to stay in the Fairgrounds Park after the pipes have been drained for the winter.

The fair office is open by appointment only. If you need to gain access to the fairgrounds or would like to camp at the fairgrounds park contact Fair Board President Becky Ledtke @ 795-3434 or you can call 1-360-795-3480 and leave a message.

The next Wahkiakum County Fair Board meeting is November 10, 7 p.m., River Street Building Meeting Room in Cathlamet. The public is always welcome to attend.