DAYTON-Setting up for the fair last week was no easy task. Just ask Rose Engelbrite, the Superintendent in charge of the Pavilion.

Englebrite referred to last Wednesday as "panic day." She said the booths had to be set up by 10 pm that night for the next day's judging of them.

Michele Smith

(l to r): Dena Bell-Potter, Desirae Jones, and Jamie Trump were judging the baked goods.

When she came on board eighteen years ago, Englebrite said bales of straw were used to divide the entries. Now the booths are constructed out of wood frames.

"It's really changed a lot," she said.

There were over thirty booths in the Pavilion, featuring food preservation, garden and produce, baking, floral, fine arts, needle craft and sewing, photography, quilting as well as booths advertising businesses and fraternal organizations. Englebrite is in charge of crops and forages.

Englebrite said most people don't know the Columbia County Fair is open to anyone living in the Hospital District, and that includes Starbuck, Waitsburg, and Prescott, as well as Dayton.

"We pay taxes to be part of this fair," she said.

"When it's all done I like to see the amazing booths," Englebrite said. "It's really fun. I enjoy seeing all the different people and being a part of it."