Commissioners seek loan funding for fairgrounds upgrade

The Lincoln County Commissioners on Wednesday released an application for a loan they hope will fund an upgrade project to the county fairgrounds in Eureka expected to break ground next year.

Through the state InterCap loan program, the county is seeking $670,000 for upgrades to the facility’s bleachers and water system. The loan would be repaid over a 15-year period through the Payment in Lieu of Taxes fund the county receives each year from the federal government. According to the loan application, that funding account has a substantial balance available for repayment along with future payments. According to the application, the county intends to pay the loan off within five to seven years.

“We talk about investments,” Commissioner Mike Cole said at Wednesday’s meeting. “You invest in infrastructure — that’s how you grow. This is an asset that would last the community another 30 or 40 years.”

The county fairgrounds in Eureka hosts several private and public events, including quilt shows, 4-H events, trade fairs and weddings, as well as the annual Lincoln County Fair and Bull Thing in August.

Cole said the county has already invested several thousand dollars into the fairgrounds, including $8,000 toward infrastructure improvements in the last year.

The fairgrounds are currently served by a series of septic tanks that the county has found are nearing failure. At recent events, organizers have brought in portable toilets so large crowds such as the 4,000 attendees expected at this year’s Bull Thing don’t overwhelm the system.

In the plan to upgrade the septic system, the county would look to abandon the current septic system, install new wastewater lines within the grounds and hook the system up to the Eureka’s city services. Several residents that attended the meeting held in Eureka questioned whether the city system could take on the additional workload.

“The capacity, per engineering, is there,” Tracy McIntyre, executive director of the Eureka Rural Development Partners, said.

The second need for improvements lies in the rodeo grounds bleachers. The wood bleachers were built on land that is deteriorating beneath them. The planned new bleachers would be pre-casted and engineered to increase capacity by 1,700 seats.

The county hopes to get the project underway as soon as funding is secured. The official timeline would be based on when new service equipment and bleachers arrive to the site. Construction would be expected to begin in spring 2017.

Public comment is open on the loan application.

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.