Construction at fairground to be complete by end of week
By Steve Herring
Published in News on June 14, 2016 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/STEVE HERRING
Johnny McReady, left, and Lucio Costello with Westbrook Builders work on the porch area of a new building at the Wayne County Fairgrounds. The building will have two offices, one for sheriff's deputies and the other for rescue personnel to stage during the annual Wayne Regional Agricultural Fair.
DUDLEY -- Construction is expected to be completed by the end of the week on a new building at the Wayne County Fairgrounds that will serve as an emergency command post.
During the off-season the approximately $12,000 structure can be used for other events, Fair Manager Eddie Pitzer said.
It is being constructed by Westbrook Builders of Goldsboro.
"For just lack of a better word, we are kind of referring to it as a command post," Pitzer said. "Several years ago we went ahead and implemented a full emergency response plan, working with the Office of Emergency Services, the Sheriff's Office to put it all together. One thing we talked about is you need a central point where all of these services can communicate and respond quickly.
"We did work out of the (fair) office in the past years. But what we wanted to do was to have a site that would sort of be on the central site of the fairgrounds. Then it could be a central headquarters for the rescue squad, for the fire department, for the Sheriff's Office. I would be right close within the main office so if for some unforeseen reason that we needed to get together, we are all centrally located."
The building is located at the end of the white building and is backed up to the grandstand.
It is a good central point if emergency personnel need to go to the midway, to the food court or to the grandstand, Pitzer said.
The building has two 10-foot-by-10-foot-rooms and a covered porch.
"That way they will be able to have all their equipment there," Pitzer said. "They will be able to park the fire trucks there, the rescue truck and some of the deputies can park in the same area. It will serve during the off season for like when we have events like the home and garden show, Relay for Life. These people coming out organizing these type of events need somewhere they can have a little bit of space to manage those events.
"So we can use those rooms as a place for them to have for a headquarters office or a staging office there, too. It will be a nice facility that we can use, primarily for our emergency planning, but it can serve for some off-season usage also."
The fairgrounds are being used much more, Pitzer said.
"We have had events almost every weekend since the first of April," he said. "Next weekend we have the food pantry and Tyson Food are having a Father's Day cook-off, which is a good event."
Pitzer said calls have been received about other events later in the year.
"We are soon going to have to soon start doing a few things to start getting ready for the fair," he said. "But it is good thing we are using the fairgrounds more instead of it just sitting there.
"We always try to have something new and exciting for the next year for the fairgrounds. Last year it rained five our of 10 days so we are having to watch our budget a little closer this year. But we are going to be doing some other things, little cosmetic things."
That includes putting in gardens. Sunflowers have already been planted.
Those areas would normally just be empty space but the flowers and gardens had eye appeal and color, he said.
"They were a big hit last year," Pitzer said.
The idea is to fix up areas where people can take photos, he said.
"It is getting close to a hundred days (to the fair) -- Sept. 29 through Oct. 8," Pitzer said. "For people who are interested, our catalog will be coming out hopefully by the latter part of August. They can start looking if they would like to enter something in the fair. We are always looking for good exhibits."
The new building is a continuation of improvements at the fairgrounds. Last year new lights were added and the parking lots expanded.
"There are always things that you have to do just to keep improving," Pitzer said.
"You don't ever stop. As time goes on and we have resources available we are going to continue to make improvements and some changes.
"Of course any time you have as many buildings as we have, the maintenance alone gets to be expensive."