A town hall meeting will be held by the Fairgrounds Marketing and Usage group to present plans for an expo center to the community of Lincoln County.
The presentation will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 15 at Les & Jim’s Lincoln Lanes in Merrill. Vice President of the Lincoln County Rodeo Association, Inc. Pete Annis and Fair Association director Dale Christiansen will be presenting on behalf of the Fairgrounds Marketing and Usage group. They plan to discuss the expo center’s marketing plan, what the expo center can bring to Lincoln County and the formation of a board of directors to oversee the usage of the center for the county. They also plan to show pictures and drawings of the proposed expo center to give community members a better idea of what they have in mind.
“We’d like to inform the public about what our plans for the expo center are and how it will give back to the community,” Annis said. “We want the public’s participation. We want to know if this is something they want to see or not.”
The Fairgrounds Marketing and Usage group encourages all community members to attend, ask questions and provide them with input about the expo center.
“Our hope is to create interest in this and our hope is to be able to show that this will not be a burden to tax payers,” Christiansen said. “I’d invite everyone out to the meeting to hear the plans, whether you’re for or against it.”
With the Lincoln County Board’s decision to move forward with a request for proposal to replace the grandstand with a like structure, the Usage group is hoping to gain enough community interest to encourage the Board to reconsider all options for improving the Lincoln County fairgrounds.
“If we have positive feedback, hopefully the Board will take notice of that and they might be more open to looking at an expo center,” Annis said. “It’s their (the community’s) facility, the public should have a say in it.”
The proposed expo center would sit on the east side of the fairgrounds, starting approximately where the old grandstand previously stood, and go north from there. The building will be about 250 feet wide by 350 feet long and will house an arena, along with fixed stadium style seating on either side that will seat 3,400 people with the option of increasing seating through floor space for different events. It will also incorporate large, overhead doors on both ends of the facility that will allow it to be used for a variety of events including rodeos, tractor pulls, motocross, demolition derbies, indoor concerts, conventions and a variety of exhibition shows. The facility will also provide new restrooms, shower facilities and concession areas for the fairgrounds.
“It’s a great opportunity that’s only going to present itself once,” Christiansen said.
Although the preliminary estimates for constructing this facility are at $7 million, the Usage group is looking at building the expo center in phases. By building it in phases, the cost for the facility will be paid in chunks that will be spread out over time. Each phase will begin construction once the necessary funds for that phase are raised. Firm cost estimates cannot be made until an architect has been hired for the project.
Those interested in helping to bring an expo center to Lincoln County are encouraged to attend the town hall meeting as well as the regularly scheduled Marketing and Fairgrounds Usage group meetings. For a list of meeting times, please visit www.co.lincoln.wi.us/county_calendar/.