By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Steps are being taken toward making a Buchanan County fairgrounds a reality.
Buchanan County Presiding Commissioner, Scott Nelson, says the county sees great opportunity if a fairgrounds is created at the Easton school grounds once the East Buchanan School District moves the middle school to Gower.
“First and foremost, we wanted to have a place for the 4-H to have shows; for their cattle shows,” Nelson tells KFEQmmunity. “And at the same time, we didn’t want to have a building that just sat there other than maybe two events a year. That’s really not self-sustaining. It’s kind of a waste of a building.”
Nelson says the 10 acres belonging to the school district would be only enough for an arena and parking. Nelson says the County Fair Board is talking with neighboring property owners about purchasing additional land.
“If we could get an agreement on purchasing any of the abutting property that would be beneficial,” according to Nelson. “The city of Easton, from everything I hear and what everybody tells me, they are stoked about this.”
Nelson says the county would like to enter the contract and begin work soon even if East Buchanan can’t complete the new middle school building and move classes to Gower before the fall semester.
“We would like to be there in the summer and get this thing done, if possible, so we could do some work in the summer, while the kids aren’t there.”
Nelson says the county will give the school district all the time it needs to make the move.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.