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HARTINGTON – It is fair to say certain parts of the Cedar County Fairgrounds will look different when people attend the fair this year.
Three improvement projects are being worked on at the fairgrounds in Hartington as the 2023 event approaches.
The 130th edition of the fair is set for July 19-23.
Greg Heine, who is in his 11th year as fair board president, said one of the projects will add a wooden lean-to structure to the small animals building to shade spectators.
The funds for this work were donated by Pam Polenske, Randolph, in memory of her husband, Keith, who died on Oct. 30, 2021, at the age of 50, as a result of a workplace accident in Norfolk.
Heine said both Polenskes served as members of the fair board in the past.
'They've always enjoyed the fair and they've always enjoyed just everything about it, so they wanted to help and give back,' Heine said. 'It's kind of a neat thing from the Polenske family there. It's going to be a nice little addition there.'
Another project going on at the fairgrounds is a new, expanded arena for rodeo activities.
'It's a fairly good-sized project,' Heine said of the 30,000-square-foot facility. 'A lot of stuff was donated for that. We always get a lot of help from the community, which is great.'
The arena project includes updated bucking chutes for the bulls and broncs to be released from with their riders. There are now six chutes instead of four.
'It just kind of speeds up the show a little bit,' Heine said. 'This way, we can load up a few more bulls at a time or the broncs or whatever.'
The arena also will see new steelpipe fencing, wooden posts and overhead lights, thanks to the project.
'We had some posts that were just getting rotted,' Heine said. 'When you have those horses and those bulls out, you want to make sure you have a good fence between (them) and the spectators.'
The third project being worked on at the fairgrounds is improvements to 16 of the 32 livestock stalls for hogs.
'We've just seen an uptick in families interested in showing pigs,' Heine said. 'It's really a good problem to have. Last year, we actually maxed out most of the livestock barns. We were pretty happy about that.'
The focus of this project has been improving the hog stalls the fairgrounds already has, not adding more.
'We wanted to get better stalls for them,' Heine said. 'We're putting a concrete floor into the hog stalls and then putting in more wash bays for the hogs, as well.'
The goal is to have all three improvement projects completed by the time the fair starts in July.
'We're kind of excited to get all that out of the way,' Heine said. 'It always comes down to the wire, but we get them done.'
He said fair board members and other community members volunteer their time and put in a lot of effort to work on these kinds of projects, and other people and businesses donate money to, and sponsor fair, activities.
'That's kind of what makes this fair go,' Heine said. 'If we do good shows and keep improving, people appreciate it and they like to be part of it.'
