By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Since the East Buchanan Middle School moved to Gower and the ground became available, work’s been progressing quickly on the Buchanan County Fairgrounds.
Buchanan County Presiding Commissioner Scott Nelson says dirt work has already been completed and now the new arena area is starting to take shape
“The north footing was poured, north wall was poured, and two thirds of the east wall was poured,” Nelson says on the KFEQmunnity show. “Now I’m told that they’ve continued pouring those footings.”
Nelson says there has been a lot of excitement in Easton around the new project as work happens
“I don’t know how many calls I’ve gotten that I want to help, I want to be part of this, and you know I appreciate that but I’m not the guy to tell you how you can help, so we’re making arrangements for that,” Nelson says.
Nelson says along with the work on the arena, there are also ongoing talks about what to do with the school building.
Nelson says discussions also are underway about the possible move of the Buchanan County Extension office to the site, which he says would provide growth potential for 4H programming
“They really didn’t have anywhere to go in Buchanan County to do their shows, but now they have a place to do their show, and people can come here,” Nelson explains. “And now they don’t have to go looking around for churches and offices and space to have debate contests or leadership conferences or whatever they do.”
Nelson points out that despite some skepticism from people, work is happening, and the future for a new fairground is in a good place.
Nelson says those doubts people might have had about a fairground in Buchanan County stem from years of hearing about it
“This is going to happen, this is going to happen, and then there was kind of a lull for a while, and over the last two years it’s kind of picked back up, and I understand that I do,” Nelson says. “But today, as we speak, there are boots on the ground, dirt’s flowing, concretes flowing, steel is on the ground, it’s going to be put up.”
Nelson says there’s also currently no debt to own the land, so now the next step is coming up with an operating budget to keep a fairground operational.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.
