THE LOCAL NEWS OF THE MADISON VALLEY, RUBY VALLEY AND SURROUNDING AREAS

Fair board approves master plan, apply for tourism grant

TWIN BRIDGES – The Madison County Fair Board approved the fairgrounds master plan during their April 19 meeting. After receiving the plan earlier this year, both the board and the county commissioners were unhappy with the finished product. Commission Chair Ron Nye said he felt the product was inadequate for what it cost. “I was very disappointed in the overall, end product,” he said during last month’s fair board meeting.

  After some work and discussions with Great West Engineering, who prepared the master plan, both the board and commissioners said they felt ready to move forward. Some of the fixes in the master plan include adding bathrooms and showers, improving the campground and updating the hog barn. 

Talk on expanding the grounds has been ongoing throughout the county as space continues to dwindle on the grounds and number of participants continue to grow. 

Madison County Fair Grounds Manager Dana Escott said the board did approved the final plan after GWE addressed previous concerns and made a recommendation to the commissioners. 

 

Tourism grant

During an April 5 special meeting, the board and commissioners talked about applying for a grant that would potentially allow for an indoor multi-purpose building on the grounds. Nye presented to the board the option of applying for the Montana Office of Tourism and Business Development grant, which funds projects that develop and enhance tourism and recreation products of interest to nonresident visitors. Craig Erikson, who worked on the master plan, said he felt strongly about applying for the grant, adding building a multi-purpose building that draws more people to Twin Bridges would be eligible for funding. 

According to Escott, the board decided to move forward in applying for the grant during the April 19 meeting. The grant is expected to have approximately $700,000-$800,000 available for funding projects, and if selected, projects have a 12-month window to be completed.  Applications are due between July 1 – September 30. 

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