The Clinton County Fair will kick off it’s annual week of fun and festivities this Saturday, however, the Fair Board has been hard at work months ahead of time to complete updates and repairs to the grounds itself in order to provide the public with a great week of fair time activities.

Clinton County Fair Board President Mike Matthews recently told the NEWS that the fairgrounds is getting a makeover and has done so in part with a matching grant the board received this year.

The grant was a 25 percent matching grant where the fair board put up $27,000 and received about $80,000.

“It’s a game changer,” Matthews said. “We get one week’s revenue to operate the fair grounds for the whole year. After the fair, with what we get in, have to pay for everything at the fairgrounds for the whole year and it’s pretty much a wash.”

One of the most noticable improvements fair goers will see is the new metal roof that was installed last week on the main grandstands.

“Without getting this grant from the fair association, we don’t have the ability to do the big stuff,” Matthews said. “That’s the first new roof it’s had since it was built in excess of 35 plus years.”

Some of the renovations at the grounds include the new roof on the grandstands, a new speaker and sound system on the upper and lower tracks which will be bluetooth accessible and will be connected to the local EMS in case of severe weather or any other situations that may arise.

“Our local emergency services will be able to break through and advise us on what we need to do in case of an emergency,” Matthews said.

Also the fair board has built a new building on the lower track that will be completely enclosed. In previous years, a stage had to be pulled down to the lower track in order to put fair officials under a roof for events that took place on the lower track.

“It will now serve as the announcers booth down there,” Matthews said.

Other renovations include tearing down the main food booth to the block walls and completely reconstructing it from the inside, including new wiring and an all new inside.

Matthews also said the bathroom have been re-modeled to accommodate more people at one time.

“Every time we would look over there it seemed there was a line to get in, so we made it to where more people could use it at one time,” Matthews said. “We completely filled in and bought new bleachers for the truck track so we will be able to sit around 1,500 people there. The main ring was a bowl and held water from year’s of dragging and all of that, so we had a contractor come in and put 53 loads of red clay in it. We also had it sculpted to where it will drain better and we packed it. We haven’t done that in years, so hopefully that gives us the ability to not have to cancel events if we have a little rain.”

Some of the other things are smaller, but Matthews said included were items that needed to be done like the purchase of a new trailer.

“We needed a new trailer to haul stuff on and things like that,” Matthews said. “We aren’t done with making some changes. We still have some money left. With everything we are trying to do, that’s everything we can do before the fair. We will be trying to do some more things after the fair is over. I think people will see a big difference.”

This year’s fair will start on Saturday, June 10, with gate prices set the same as last year with the carnival rides included in the gate price.

“We don’t get all of the gate because we have to split that with the carnival,” Matthews said. “It’s going to benefit some people and some people it’s not, but we’ve not had a lot of negative feedback.”

Matthews said they are having a full horse show this year and it couldn’t have happened without the help of Country Farm and Home.

“We are going to have barrel races and all kinds of stuff this year,” Matthews said. “We are hoping to get the horse show back up and running.”

Spectators will see an early view of the newly renovated fair grounds on Friday night as Molly Hatchet is set to preform on the grounds.

“The fair board would like to thank the tourism commission because they came to us thinking of us,” Matthews said. “They came to us and said if they do this at our venue the day before our fair starts, it could be a good thing to kick the fair off.”

Molly Hatchet will take the stage at 9:30 p.m. with Blackfoot opening the concert at 7:30. Gates will open at 4 p.m.

Separate articles can be found this week beginning on page 1 outlining the 2017 Clinton County Fair schedule as well as the Friday night Molly Hatchet/Blackfoot concert.