There’s future and present activities going on at the Morgan County Fairgrounds involving the construction of new patios.
County fair board member Sue Freeman says construction on a new 4-H patio wrapped up last week and took less than a month.
“We decided that we needed to beautify the fairgrounds, and this was one we could do that, by putting a 4-H patio in place…we decided to do something for the 4-H and beautify that part of the fairgrounds,” says Freeman.
“This is just one step. We’ve got landscaping to do next year, that’s going to be our goal is to landscape around the 4-H patio, and we’re getting the 4-H club involved in doing that type of thing.”
Freeman says the next step is to engrave bricks for the patio.
“We have a few bricks that have been engraved so far, so people can go out there and see the names that are on the bricks. But, we’re continuing to have bricks engraved. We’ll do it during the winter time, then right before the fair we’ll have the bricks, replace the bricks with the ones that had been engraved,” she says.
“And you can do it with someone that has been involved in the fair, or just enjoys coming to the fair, it can be in memory of someone, it can be an organization.”
Engravings range from $75 to $150. You can find out more by calling 473-4222.
Meanwhile, the Jacksonville Rotary Club is planning the construction of a new entertainment patio for 2017.
Rotarian Lori Hartz says the patio will go up in an area between the pavilion and grandstand area. She says the club worked with county fair officials to come up with a useful purpose for that area, which is just a gravel parcel currently.
“When we started talking to the fair about what’s needed there, they said they think that’s the best area that needs improved. The fair board told us they thought they could use this space to hold events, and the community could use it for different various events. So, we kind of designed it for different purposes,” she says.
“We could have a band out there, we could have a private party because we’ve sectioned it in such a way that it can be sectioned off from the rest of the fairgrounds. It has removable gates, so they can still use their buildings, and you can drive over the top of this like they needed to before to store the campers and boats.”
There will be a brick walkway where project donors can have their names engraved for this project, as well.
Hartz adds the Rotary Club is going to have a new billboard for the fair near the corner of Lafayette and Westgate.
“We’re gonna put their new logo on this new, beautiful sign on the corner. It has an LED panel that can have a customized message that they can program to whatever they want. And, it’s still going to clearly mark the boundaries for the Morgan County Fair,” Hartz says.
The Rotary Club hopes to have the project complete by some time next year and has budgeted about $100-thousand for it. You can find out more information at www.jacksonvillerotary.org/buyabrick. Renderings are on display at the Morgan County Fair this week.
Ryne Turke contributed to this report.