The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

We have many painting projects to finish before fair time and received some excellent help from The Farmers 4-H Club last week! Shawn Deal, the rabbit and cavy superintendent and Deb Gribskov, poultry superintendent, brought their 4-H club to the fairgrounds twice last week. Their first project was to paint the picnic tables with blue, lavender and pink paint. Later in the week, the club returned to spend an hour applying primer paint to the new goat, sheep and swine pens. A big thank you to Taya Deal, Nanea Carroll, Teylor Sauer, Cadence Guest, Jacob Hammond, Tristan Collupy, Maria Gonzalez-Rogers, Tanner Collupy, Kara Haney, Hank Bassi, Elliott Haney, Novella Hokkanen, Deb Gribskov, Kelly Guest and Shawn Deal!

The Haney family volunteered to return the following day and help us finish applying the primer coat. Eleven gallons of primer have been painted onto the new sheep, goat and swine pens. With help from 4-H clubs, volunteers and fair staff we can continue to tackle big projects and get them accomplished! Thanks to Sheila, Elliott and Kara Haney, Ed, MacKenzie, Nick and Barb, the first coat was completed! Next week we will paint the pens again, this time using a couple of pretty colors!

Every three months I add up the fairgrounds volunteer hours and am always amazed and thankful when I look at the total. Volunteers worked 768 hours on our fairgrounds to keep the property mowed and weeded. New projects were accomplished and many repairs completed. Big thanks to these hard working volunteers: Joe Blalock, Rosa, MacKenzie Stevens, Georgie Billings, Barb Czarnecki, Nick Brockway, Chuck Gaines,Bryan Ledtke, Becky Ledtke, Jerry Ledtke, Bill Chamberlain, John Gustafson, Bill Mahitka, Sarah Czarnecki, Kathy Elliott, Maureen Zacker-Bockius and Kay Chamberlain.

Esther Gregg had the new fair dates put on our Fair banner and also had the damaged banner repaired! We had some pretty strong winds last year while the banner was hanging over Highway SR4 and it received serious damage. Esther had to take the banner to a sail maker in Astoria for repairs. She is taking the banner to the PUD this week, so it should be over the highway soon. Thank you Esther for taking care of our Fair banner each year!

At our Wahkiakum County Fair booth during the Bald Eagle Day celebration we handed out fair books and entertainment schedules, plus we sold fair passes, firewood raffle tickets and T-shirts. It was a beautiful day for the event and well attended. If you would like to purchase a $6 Fair pass you can purchase them at the Skamokawa Resort, Sharon’s Pizza and More, Cathlamet Pharmacy, Bank of the Pacific in Cathlamet, the Rosburg Store, the Bank of the Pacific in Naselle and the Fairgrounds office.

The rummage sale is over! The sale has been a good fund raiser for our fair and we thank our community for donating items to the sale. Packing up the sale was a big job, made a lot easier thanks to Barbara Rose, Maureen Zacker-Bockius, Azery Gribskov, Ed Stevens, Nick Brockway and Bryan Ledtke! Many hours were spent packing hundreds of boxes and putting them into storage!

The Wahkiakum County Fair will have a booth at the Vista Park Market this Saturday, stop by our booth to purchase your fair pass, firewood raffle tickets or fair T-shirt. I will have fair books and entertainment schedules too. The Fair is only 25 days away!

If you need to gain access to the Fairgrounds contact Fair Manager Becky Ledtke at 1-360-795-3480 and please leave a message. Need some exhibitor tags or an exhibitor number? The fair office will be open Monday-Thursday noon-3 p.m. or by appointment if these hours don’t fit your schedule.