At its next to last meeting before the upcoming county fair, the Washington County Fair Board met to finalize some last minute business.
The theme of the fair will be “The Wonderful World of Food and Family,” combining the state fair theme along with a suggested theme for the county fair parade.
Also, Sharon Smedley said she would be finalizing fair books to get them printed by the first of May.
The board also will work with the 4-H SWAG (See What AG Gives) program to collect canned food items for the Washington County Food Bank. Food will also be collected during the parade again.
There will be the first of two trucks pulls at Thunder Valley Raceway on Saturday, June 10. Another will be scheduled for later in the fall.
The normal grandstand events have been moved permanently to the Salem Schools building.
The annual Baby Contest will be held at the Bradie Shrum Elementary School on Saturday, June 17 at 1p, with registration beginning at noon.
The Parade will be Sunday, June 18 at 3p.
Monday night’s queen contest and Tuesday night’s Teen pagaent have been moved to the Salem Middle School, leaving the grandstand open.
Fair board president Tony Nolan said they were looking for events to fill those dates, with proposed races the rest of the week.
“We’re operating a county fair in 2017 on a budget from 20 years ago,” said Nolan. “It’s difficult.”
Nolan said there would be a mini-demo derby possibly on Wednesday night, other racing events on Thursday and Friday night with the traditional demo derby on Saturday night.
Last year, a volleyball tournament was held at the grandstand and there is some interest in doing that again this year.
The parking situation at the fair was also clarified. At the last meeting, it was suggested that Hill Passes be renamed as Unloading Passes, which give merchants and others the ability to temporarily park at the top of the hill in order to unload items for their booths.
“If there is space at the top of the hill, then people can park there,” said Treasurer Kevin Stewart. “Otherwise these people would need to park at the bottom of the hill and walk up. We talked about the possibility of selling $100 dedicated parking for the week in a limited amount. These would be guaranteed parking spots. The fair will continue to be a free fair and there will be no money charged for general parking.”
Other topics discussed include Duke Energy working with the fair board to expand the electrical capacity of the fairgrounds.
Pam Hasty was introduced as the new representative of the Washington County Commissioners. She said the county would be adding more gravel to the fairgrounds’ parking area.
Steve Leonard and his wife, Misty, have taken over the operation of Thunder Valley Raceway and have been working to make improvements to the track to get ready for the truck pull and fair events.
Details on the June 21st fair race are as follows
Classes:
Hornets
Pure Stocks
Modifieds
MMSA Sprints
Mini Stocks and Pro Trucks
Pit gates open at 4:00 with a Drivers meeting at 6p.
Hot laps at 6:30 with Racing at 7:00.
Pit admission $30.00
Grandstand admission $7.00
$4.00 ages 6-12
More information on the Saturday night demo derby will be posted this week.
Keep checking wslmradio.com to keep up the latest fair news and a digital copy of the fair book.
