The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG – What is happening – or not happening – at the Waitsburg Fairgrounds has been a hot topic around town in recent months. Concerned citizens have the opportunity to become part of the solution by attending a public fairgrounds revitalization meeting on Thursday, March 3 at 6:30 p.m. at the Lions Club Building at the fairgrounds.

At the Jan. 6 community forum for the previously-proposed Waitsburg Raceway, Mayor Walt Gobel, along with fellow city council members, expressed frustration at the lack of citizen involvement they have seen as they have attempted to breathe life into the fairgrounds over the last couple of years.

"We've heard all the comments about why we shouldn't have stock car racing," Gobel said at the January meeting. "I've read email upon email upon email and letters stating there are better uses for the fairgrounds. You know what disappoints me as your mayor? What are those better uses? Nobody's come forward to help us with that situation or to get involved to help. I wish we had that same enthusiasm that I see here."

Last week, City Administrator Randy Hinchliffe addressed the Waitsburg Commercial Club to provide an overview of what is currently taking place at the fairgrounds and what the future plans are.

Hinchliffe gave a brief history of the fairgrounds facility, which includes about 20 acres of land, with nine acres of grassy infield. He said the fairgrounds had been a horse facility for about 100 years, but the Days of Real Sport board returned the facility to the city in 2005, after government funding for smaller racing events dried up.

The fairgrounds was then annexed into the city and the city attempted to maintain the facilities for events, softball, and horse boarding. Hinchliffe said the city only gets about one-third of the cost of maintenance costs back in taxes, however.

Recent news that the grandstands are unsafe and must be either rebuilt or demolished means another big expense for the city.

In 2013, Councilor K. C. Kuykendall requested that the city transfer management of the horse facilities to a nonprofit group that he would organize. He planned to turn the fairgrounds into an equestrian and event center that would generate revenue through boarding horses.

The city agreed to Kuykendall's requested five-year commitment, but the plan was abandoned last year after it failed to generate the interest and commitments Kuykendall had anticipated.

After that, Hinchliffe said that the city council, the fairgrounds committee and the public works department mapped out a plan to shift the fairgrounds from an equine facility to more of a sports complex. The plan was voted on and approved unanimously last September.

The complex will include one already existing softball field, a Little League complex of four fields that will allow play at multiple skill levels, and a soccer field. Additional parking will be added to the east side of the fairgrounds, off College Avenue.

Hinchliffe said the fields will allow kids to play baseball in one place, rather than in three different locations around town as they do currently. He said the complex will also open the facility up for tournament play.

"In the entire valley, which stretches from Pomeroy to Milton-Freewater, we probably have at least 1,000 kids that play little league at some level," said Hinchliffe. He added that he has agreed to take over as Touchet Valley Little League President and said there are plans to expand the league.

Hinchliffe said work on the fields is underway and he expects that a fully functional Little League complex will be ready to go by the end of March.

Additional plans for the fairgrounds include grassing in the dirt race track because grass is easier to maintain than dirt, tearing down the racing rail to create a wide, open, grassy space, and building concessions stand and a gazebo, Hinchliffe said.

But not everyone is in favor of losing the track and rail. At the January 20 city council meeting, Days of Real Sport Treasurer Terry Jacoy told the council that the rail was put in for $50,000, using volunteer labor, and that it would cost much more to replace it today.

"If you take out that rail horse racing will never come back and you won't have any kind of equestrian event out here," Jacoy said. He also said there is still a possibility that gambling revenues could become available through the gaming commission to fund nonprofit tracks.

The council acknowledged the new plans mean a certain end to horse racing in Waitsburg but said they didn't think they would ever see racing funded again.

Portable horse stalls that were in poor condition have already been torn down, but future plans include space for an equine facility on the north end of the fairgrounds, with horse barns and an arena.

Space on the southeast side of the fairgrounds is slated for development as a dry-camping and RV camping area. A dirt area will be left on the west side of the fairgrounds for use as an ATV mud pit during Celebration Days.

"The whole idea was to figure out how to retain some of the livestock facilities for 4-H and FFA, but at the same time make the facility something that would be used and would be attractive to a broader group; not only to Waitsburg citizens, but how do you attract people to Waitsburg?" Kuykendall said.

"Now that we have a diversification of the facility we need to talk about the beautification and landscaping that would be required to make families want to hang out and hold events here. But that's a phased approach that takes money and it's perfectly appropriate that it would be talked about in this economic development group that's being formed," he said.

Citizens are invited to a public meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Thurs., March 3 at the Lions Building at the Waitsburg Fairgrounds, to discuss the future of the fairgrounds facilities. Topics could include usage and events, fundraising and taxes, grandstands renovation/demolition, and anything else fairgrounds related. Anyone willing to be involved in any capacity is encouraged to attend.