The exhibit hall at the Lincoln County fairgrounds had air conditioning installed this year, and along with the heating system, will now become a year-round facility available for numerous types of functions. (Dave Maxwell photo)
Part of the annual Lincoln County Fair and Rodeo is the 4-H Fair. County Coordinator Hayley Gloeckner said she was pleased with the turnout this year, “even though we were down on some areas like cooking and sewing, we went up in creative arts and fine arts, drawing, photography, sculpting, jewelry making, chalk boards. Over the years I have watched it change and flow from one type of popular project to another. I was really pleased, and I had an amazing group of 4-H volunteers that came out and worked with kids this year. We are lucky in this county, we have a lot of very caring parents.”
Gloeckner pointed out there are many other people who care and help in all kinds of ways with the fair, not only the 4-H side of things.
Exhibit Hall coordinator and fair committee vice-chairman Debi Gill of Pioche, said there were new additions to the hall this year. “We added new display tables that were made by John Ahlstrom at C.O. Bastian School. We have added new bathrooms, brought more water into the building. There is a also new 50-foot flag pole, along with a new flag,” donated by Steve Heiselbetz, she said.
Air conditioning and heating systems have been added to the building. “It will be a year-round facility to utilize,” Gill said. “We have the racers that come through during the year to use the building, the high school rodeo, family reunions, community activities, etc.” With the new HVAC system, the building can be used for any number of other activities.
However, there are no kitchen facilities as yet. “That’s another project,” she said.
During the days of the fair, 4-H has all of their exhibits there, as well as the all-ages division. The exhibits are placed on separate sides of the building for easy identification. Adults and kids who are not involved in 4-H, but want to exhibit their work in many areas, were able to display their work as well. “The big draw are the handmade quilts,” Gill said. “A lot of people really like to see those.”
What the exhibit hall would like to see more of Gill said, would be jellies, breads, cake decorating, etc. “We really need the public to start buying into the fair.”
There were about 100 exhibits this year, and Gill said that was down quite a bit from previous years.
She said as in most years, there are usually not a lot of people from the southern part of the county to attend the fair except for those involved with 4-H or rodeo. “We really want more of the people of the county to come, visit the fair, enter an exhibit, and show us what they can do, and we are adding new things every year, trying new ways, and we need as many volunteers as we can find.”
Gloeckner said the results of the judging at the 4-H Fair would not be available until the next issue of the Lincoln County Record.
