New fair buildings will expand agriculture education
Aug. 8—CHIPPEWA FALLS — "We are building an ag campus," said Rusty Volk at a groundbreaking ceremony Monday for five new buildings that will be constructed at the Northern Wisconsin State Fairgrounds. "It will help with the public's undertanding of how food is produced. It will help explain how (agriculture) is changing, and where it is going to go."
Volk, the fair's director, envisions agriculture education programming being offered in the buildings, saying the structures will be used frequently, not just during the week-long fair. Volk said these new buildings are the culmination of plans developed since 2008, when the community purchased the privately-owned fairgrounds.
"I'm so happy we can finally get this started," Volk said. "The youth are going to benefit from this for years. The barns we had really needed to come down."
Construction on the new barns, at a cost of $6.035 million, will begin immediately, with the goal of the buildings being completed by May, ahead of next year's fair, which begins July 12. Volk said the project is now at 85% funded in cash-on-hand or pledges.
Chippewa Falls Mayor Greg Hoffman spoke at the ceremony about the community's decision to make the investment and purchase the fairgrounds.
"This piece of land is extremely valuable to Chippewa Falls," Hoffman said. "I'm excited for the fairgrounds, for Chippewa Falls, and for the region. It's a key component to the community. I appreciate all the people and businesses who donated to this."
Jerry Jacobson, Northwestern Bank president, said the ground-breaking ceremony marks a "great day for the agriculture community."
"Really, it's a culmination of what we were looking at when we raised the funds to buy the fair," Jacobson said. "Without Rusty's perseverance, this wouldn't have gotten done."
In 2014, Volk unveiled a plan for a single, 65,000-square-foot building that also had an anticipated $6 million cost.
A feasibility study the fair association conducted over the past two years showed it made more sense to construct several smaller buildings, side by side, instead of one large new building. The plans call for two cattle barns ($1.11 million), a show arena/coliseum ($1.2 million), a small animal barn ($993,207), a restroom & shower building/emergency shelter ($1.35 million) and utilities/infrastructure improvements ($684,195).
Savings of $98,650 are expected in the utilities, for a total of $5,248,220. Again, with the higher construction costs, the board has increased their goal to $6 million, with any leftover money going into paying for repairs to the other existing structures on the fairgrounds.
"We realized we could get this whole project done at one time, and save our community a lot of money," Volk said.
In April 2019, the large, century-old red barn collapsed from heavy snow and was razed, and most of the other barns on the grounds have outlived their useful lives.
"There is a time when buildings just can't be repaired anymore, and all you can do is knock them down and start new," Hoffman said.
The Community Foundation of Chippewa County purchased the 56-acre fairgrounds from fair owners Jim Flanagan and Julius "Pinky" Lee for $600,000 in spring 2008 and formed a non-profit organization to operate it. The fair board hired Volk to operate the grounds later that year. Plans to revamp the grounds, including these new buildings, were developed over time.
