Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
The exposition building stands on the Gogebic County Fairgrounds in Ironwood on Tuesday. The Gogebic County Board of Commissioners prohibited the use of this building and several others at the same location on July 27 in response to a study by U.P. Engineers and Architects.
By ZACHARY MARANO
Ironwood - The Gogebic County Board of Commissioners prohibited the use of several fairgrounds buildings on July 27, just two weeks before the Gogebic County Fair on Aug. 11-14. With less than two weeks left before the fair, the fair board met on Monday to discuss how to move forward with this announcement.
Gogebic County contracted the Houghton-based firm U.P. Engineers and Architects to perform a buildings study earlier this year. The study recommended that the expo building, poultry barn, horse barns and grandstand not be used by the public.
Fair board chair and Gogebic County commissioner Jim Byrns said that this building study was suddenly dropped into his lap last week and now, he must try to keep the fair going.
"(The county board) are of the opinion that they would rather shut those buildings down to avoid a lawsuit in case someone were to get hurt, which is kind of a smart way of going about it, it limits us. But, no matter what, the show will go on. That's the bottom line," Byrns said.
Byrns said that some events that were scheduled for the expo building will be held in the multipurpose building on the west end of the fairgrounds this year. According to the fair website, expo building events include exhibitions, a harness racing display, an ice cream booth and a history display managed by Gogebic County 4-H youth.
Byrns also said that they plan to host the fair's poultry barn events in a tent this year. He said they are attempted to contact other organizations to provide seating near the fence line in place of the grandstand.
U.P. Engineers and Architect's recommended building repair and replacement costs total $1,983,913. Repair costs are $1,699,063, including $228,748 for the grandstands, $98,146 for the 4-H barn, $92,698 for horse barn one, $98,990 for horse barn two, $719,253 for the cattle barn and $461,228 for the exposition building. A further $284,850 is recommended to replace the poultry barn. Byrns noted that these are only estimates and the actual costs may be lower.
According to correspondence from U.P. Engineers project manager Stephen Wright dated July 25, the expo building could be shored with masonry brick and wood shims but would require a lot of labor to install. The poultry barn could also be shored, but numerous posts would be required and those would be in the way of the aisles. Wright said this would be difficult to accomplish and still have the building usable for heavy traffic.
Wright said that per the architecture firm's report, the horse barns could be used for the fair as long as winds do not exceed 35 mph. He recommended that if these buildings are to be used, someone monitor the weather conditions and have the authority to evacuate and close them off if necessary. He said that the safe wind loads for each barn could be increased with some "fairly simple" repairs, although they would take one to two days to install at each structure.
Crystal Suzik, a fair board member, said that the board has received questions from the public about why they allowed the fairgrounds buildings to fall into disrepair. She said that the fair board does not have any say about building maintenance because the fairgrounds belong to the county. She said they only choose activities, events and vendors that will be at the fair.
Suzik said that the county board should have posted the buildings study to their website when it was completed in June and held a special meeting to answer questions from the community in order to be transparent with the public.
"We have been thrown under the bus when we had no say whatsoever in how that report was handled or what they do with the fairgrounds itself, other than us making the decisions on what we bring to the community," Suzik said.
However, Suzik said that she also heard many positive comments about the fair following the news that the fairgrounds buildings were closed. However, she said that the fair needs volunteer support to continue moving forward, as clerks and gate workers are still needed.
Byrns said that the repair and replacement of the fairgrounds buildings is a lower priority for the county compared to their other buildings that need to be repaired, such as the courthouse. The county board is also studying the need for a new jail.
"That's why I, personally, would rather see a millage passed. If it passes, we know we have the money. If it doesn't pass, that tells me that the people of Gogebic County don't want (the fair), so then we can just forget it. That's the bottom line. I know there's a lot of people who still want a fair. Let the citizens decide what they want to do," Byrns said.
At their last meeting on Wednesday, the Gogebic County board sent a letter requiring the exhibition building, poultry barn and grandstands be surrounded with fence and clearly marked "no entry." The fair board tabled this item, with board member Tom Hampston saying the county board should send someone to fence the structures themselves.
