Fairgrounds getting new lights, building
By Steve Herring
Published in News on June 14, 2015 1:50 AM
DUDLEY -- Nearly $75,000 in projects at the Wayne County Fairgrounds will brighten a parking lot and provide more space for the animals and spectators at livestock shows.
Both should be completed well before the Wayne Regional Agricultural Fair kicks off its 10-day run on Oct. 1.
T&D Electric is the electrical contractor for the $35,000 lighting project in the fairgrounds front parking lot. It is the same company that three years ago did similar work when lights were added in the rear parking lot.
"They are the ones that have come in and set the poles and are doing all the main connections with all of those," Fair Manager Eddie Pitzer said.
The second project, which carries a $40,000 price tag, is a new open shelter at the south end of the grandstand area that will replace the large tent that has been used for the past several years.
The cost for the lighting project would have been much more without the assistance of Duke Energy, Pitzer said.
"We do use the fairgrounds as a staging area with Duke Energy during hurricanes," he said. "When (Hurricane) Floyd came through, they used the fairgrounds. We have an agreement with Duke Energy that we will provide these facilities to them as a courtesy just for the community so that they can stage in the case of an emergency.
"Joey Jennings with Duke Energy actually came out and did the engineering drawings for this. Of course, he bases it on all of the calculations of how big a light you need, the spread and things like that. So we were fortunate to have Duke Energy come in and actually do the design."
Duke also provided all of the materials at its cost, he said.
"We are working with T&D on an hourly rate instead of a contract price because they said they would work with us a little closer (on cost)," Pitzer said.
The lights are on the outside of the fencing so that they will shine in toward the parking area.
"So we should have very adequate coverage," Pitzer said. "But the good thing about it is when you come to the fair, you want to feel safe and secure. There is nothing worse than having to walk through a dark parking lot at night to find your car. This is just another added level of comfort that we hope to be providing for our customers -- an environment that they feel comfortable in.
"We have taken all of these poles (that had been inside the parking area) and overhead wires and taken them out so that, hopefully, it is going to give us a little extra parking in there. Getting a few more cars in there is what we are hoping."
Also, some of the poles that were removed were old, he said.
"They have been in the ground for quite some time, and the lights on them were not adequate," Pitzer said. "If fact, we had street lights on some of them. So these 1,000-watt lights are really going to brighten it up."
The work started last week and was expected to be completed Thursday, with the exception of electrical connections being done by Edgerton Electric.
That work should be completed this week, Pitzer said. The bulbs also have to be installed.
"You don't want to put those bulbs in there and then shake them putting up the poles," he said. "So the bulbs are going in, and the lights will be the last thing that we do on them."
After the bulbs are installed, the lights will be positioned for the best coverage of the area.
Up next is the building project.
"The last three years we have rented a tent," Pitzer said. "A lot of this comes from E. coli and making sure that we keep the animals on one side of the fence and the people coming to see the livestock show on the other so that we don't have to worry about getting E. coli or getting sick. So we moved most of all of our livestock shows out to the grandstand.
The cost of renting the 80-by-80 foot tent was high enough that fair officials decided it would be cheaper in the long run to build a permanent building, Pitzer said. So they decided on a 60-by-100 foot pole shelter. The shelter will serve the same purpose as the tent while providing a structure than could be expanded later, Pitzer said.
That could include eventually enclosing the shelter, he added.
"It will be ready for this year," Pitzer said. "I have been talking with the contractor. We have all of his paperwork in. We have the engineer's drawings on that already in. Hopefully, he is going to be starting later in July on it. We are putting a few extra things in it because most of these buildings out here, we have tried to upgrade, and we have buildings that will last for decades. So we are doing a little extra work, a little extra trim, better tin on top.
"We hope it will be a nice feature for our livestock shows, but it also will be a building that down the road we can use for some off-season rentals. You have a place where people can have a picnic or some type of family event. It will be a nice shelter they can use in that area."
Some landscaping to beautify the grounds including a border for a flower bed in front of the exhibit hall that is parallel to U.S. 117 is under way as well.
"We have such a nice roadfront here, and people see it going by," Pitzer said. "So we want to do some decorating around the building and beautify it a little bit."